Leonard Shapiro exhibits at A+I

At the end of March, trained printmaker, art reviewer and designer Leonard Shapiro will exhibit a series of images resulting from intensive exploration of his face at the A+I Gallery in Cape Town.

Leonard says he began the process of studying the skeletal structure of the human skull in high school by using the biology class skeleton as a reference for his first drawings.

“While studying drawing at the UCT Michaelis School of Fine Art, I was mentored in the technique of ‘structural drawing’ by Wilma Coetzee and Diane Paulse, and I especially enjoyed drawing self-portraits. I’ve since continued with self-portrait studies through the medium of drawing and, on occasion, etching,” he says.

Through careful studies of his face – where his right hand would be drawing on paper, his eyes would be studying his reflection in a mirror and his left hand would be feeling the contours of his face – the artist built up a database of “information” on his own facial structure. His latest exhibition focuses on the retrieval of this information.

Initially created on A4 paper, the drawings were scanned in high resolution and printed in large format.

Leonard Shapiro’s Out of Hand exhibition opens on 29 March at 18h30 at the A+I Gallery, 51 Kloof Street, Gardens. Call the gallery on 021 422 5822 for more information.