Leeroy New
Psychopomp's Reef
March 2012
Installation made from flexible conduits and cable ties.
Leeroy New is a prolific young artist and designer whose practice overlaps and intersects with film, theater, visual arts and fashion. He is a Visual Arts graduate of the Philippine High School for the Arts and University of the Philippines Fine Arts and has received several citations for his work, including the grand prize for sculpture in the 2005 Metrobank Art Awards and the 2009 Ateneo Art Awards where he received residency grants in Singapore and Australia as prize. Most recently, he has been nominated for the Signature Art Prize 2011.
Primarily a practicing artist, he has done numerous exhibitions and has been invited to participate in the 2008 Singapore Biennale, where he positioned an army of his trademark alien figures on the roof of one of the courtyards of the City Hall, and the 2009 Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, where he installed an eye-shaped vessel on the facade of the FAAM museum. He is the man responsible for the Balete installation(2009) at the Rizal Library in the Ateneo University as well as the otherworldly facade of the Sputnik Comic Bar(2008) in Cubao X.
Leeroy New also works as a production designer and at present has worked on four feature films and a number of music videos and short films. He also applies his artistic practice in the context of fashion and has participated in Philippine Fashion Week. New has also designed sets, puppets and costumes for various theater/dance groups including Ballet Philippines, Dulaang UP and Sipat Lawin Ensemble.