Leonardo Drew has employed the grid, while also working to subvert it as a principle, to organize his assemblages and installations since the early 1990s. Using off-the-shelf-materials and the occasional found object, Drew produces pieces whose metaphorical power is located within his labor-intensive manipulation of materials and the spatial dynamics of his compositions.

For the de Young, Drew has conceived of the expansive installation Number 197. Spanning three walls in the museum’s atrium, it comprises a multitude of sculptural elements created and arranged in response to the unique context of the de Young’s landmark architecture.