THE STORY THUS FAR
I began my arts practice as a painter and illustrator in 2009. At that time I showed my work on the street. A few years passed this way until the beginning of 2013.
From then until the end of 2015, I worked on a piece which is only ever shown in person and in solitude. It has formed the basis for my practice since, much of which is documented here.
After that, I was exhausted so I travelled for a while to recuperate. I had many adventures, like the time I was stung by a venomous scorpion climbing the sacred waterfalls of a holy mountain; the time I cut my foot open on the highway and pretended to be a pilgrim in order to get a ride, and wound up taking part in a pilgrimage in spite of myself; swimming in a great white shark spawning bed, covered in goat fat; and so on.
While few of these adventures were in fact recuperative, they helped me learn a new way of working. Contemporary art is often posed as a conversation, but to me it has come to be more like a journey.
Anyhow, one day in Greece, prowling naked among the boulders and sage, I remembered a dream I had once about paintings made of bronze and melted colonial antiquities. I went back to Toronto and started making them in 2016.
This led to a collaboration between myself and a computer scientist, and separately with a group of musicians. It would also form the basis for a more recent digital work about history.
In the Spring of 2018, I was approached to work as an artist and consultant for a new building being erected in Toronto. For this, I made a giant metal calendar describing 1000 days of Toronto’s weather. This was an effort to blur the lines between people’s lived experience and the landscape. I have since created a second architectural calendar further exploring these themes.
Beginning around this time, I also began a series of interesting jewellery projects and commissions which would continue through 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. I recalled something that a friend had told me about jewellery being a kind of transformative storytelling, and began to treat commissions as such. This helped me further refine my approach to being-of-service through my work.
Recently, I have been working primarily on commissioned works that mark important moments in my clients’ lives, especially regarding love and death - such as this figure of a violin player and this figure of a basket weaver. Meanwhile, I have been making jewellery to serve the same purposes for my clients. Another commission at this time was to make a pedestal that would hold a scroll that in turn would hold the names of 17000 dead people during a choral reading.
I have also been developing my repertoire of both archaic and futuristic techniques, ranging from antiquated bronzecasting methods to digital sculpting and working with AIs. I’ve used these techniques together in pieces like this seated figure.
Meanwhile, I’ve also returned at times to illustration.
I am currently developing a number of projects while focusing on bronze statuary. I have found it to be a good medium to proprioceptively explore interiority, identity, and selfhood from the perspective of a mystic, craftsperson, and storyteller. A recent grotesque piece explores the concept of prayer, spiritual hygiene, and dirtiness through the same lens.
I am now looking for opportunities to make larger, more ambitious, more delightful artworks in Canada and internationally. Alongside my private commissions, I aspire to make make meaningful, honest public work that is in the service of my society, as well as people 10,000 years ago, people 10,000 years hence, and the landscape itself. In keeping with this, I am looking for ways to take responsibility for and be of service to the upcoming generation of artists.
CONTACT
Toronto, Canada
call, text, WhatsApp: +1 647 575 5841
email: leo@leokru.com
Instagram & Twitter: @leokrukowski
CV
EDUCATION
2012 BA visual arts – York University, Toronto, Ontario.
EXHIBITION WORK
SOLO
2021 Twelve Fierce Lion Colossi Striding. Art Gate International 2021 (art fair), Art Gate (virtual).
2018 Lionize II. Curated by Calder Ross, OFFSITE Concept Space, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2018 Elevate. Residency and exhibition, curated by Andrea Gader, Trove, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2017 Lionize I. Gallery Baucis, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
GROUP & PROJECTS (SELECTED)
2022 JUMP Art Gala. Daniel Sidorowicz, Calder Schantz, Peter Triantos, Tsimafei Ziaziulchyk, 777ov &co. Triantos Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2020 Grief. The Holy Gasp, Benjamin Hackman, Rochelle Rubinstein, David Mesiha, Yunjin Claire Lee, UV Aberman, Jaash Singh, Jared Goldman, Thurga Kanagasekarampillai, Evan Arbic, Conrad Coates, Nova Emad, Ahmed Moneka, Joelle Peters, Mark Reidl, Holly Timpener, Petergail Williams, Quisha Wint, Adam Nobody; The Historic Kiever Synagogue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2019 Subjective Functions x Lionize (2 person exhibition). Xavier Snelgrove. Art Gate (virtual).
2019 Open Studio: Eviction. Rowell Soller, Renaissance, Xoney Li. 156 Augusta Studio Projects, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2018 Bronze Music. Jaash Singh, Ahmed Moneka, Benjamin Hackman, Fethi Nadjem. 156 Augusta Studio Projects, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2018 Cited: Masterpiece and Memento. Curated by David Kaye, Propeller Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2017 Group exhibition. Arta Gallery, Historic Distillery District, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2017 Hamilton Supercrawl. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
2017 Why The Fuck Do You Paint? Curated by Spencer J Harrison, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2016 Cabbagetown Arts and Crafts. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2016 Hamilton Supercrawl. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
2016 Group exhibition. Arta Gallery, Historic Distillery District, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2015 Cabbagetown Arts and Crafts. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2014 Art, Alibi and Anonymous We. Treacy Ziegler, The Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
2009 Gentylmen Crow (2 person exhibition). Adam Guzman-Poole, Landsdowne Park & Sparks Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
COMMISSIONS (SELECTED)
2023 Saint Clare’s Multifaith Housing Society, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Permanent outdoor architectural installation.
2021 Saint Clare’s Multifaith Housing Society, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Permanent outdoor architectural installation.
2020 The Holy Gasp, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Pedestal for object of veneration.
BIBLIOGRAPHY & MEDIA (SELECTED)
2021 Kinch, Megan. “New Social Housing in Kensington Market Provides Beauty as well as Shelter.” Spacing issue #57 2021: 32-33. Print.
2018 Ash Misra, “Leo Krukowski.” Grounders Magazine 2018. Print & online.
LECTURES & TEACHING (SELECTED)
2022 Arts mentor for “Dear Ailment,” a production-based arts program for youth navigating mental health in Toronto. Funded by Artreach Toronto and the TAC.
2021 “When is Now? Prince Sennacherib the Great and Beeple.” Art Gate International 2021. Art Gate (virtual). Artist talk.
2020-2021 OCADu, Toronto, Ontario. Work Placement mentor for Zoë Santo.
2020 “Art as a Physical Consequence of Treating Life as Meaningful.” Material Culture Student Society Conference. University of Toronto, Toronto. Keynote speaker.
2018 “Lionize.” Exhibition. OFFSITE Concept Space, Toronto. Artist talk.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS (SELECTED)
2021-ongoing Lead Jewellery Designer, 777OV, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2018-ongoing Artistic Consultant, Saint Clare’s Multifaith Housing Society, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2015-2018 Co-owner and Lead Jewellery Designer, Artefact Jewellery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2010-2012 Assistant Curator, Eleanor Winters Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
BIO
Leo Alexander Krukowski is a Canadian artist who was born in 1991. He spent his early life moving between the Ottawa Valley, the city of Ottawa, and the Thousand Islands region. He has a degree in visual art from York University. Since 2018, he has primarily worked with private commissions creating work concerning storytelling, adventure, decreation, fakeness, and service. At present he is most active as a bronze sculptor, but his practice spans all media. He is currently living and working in the Allan Gardens neighbourhood of Toronto.