The objects and images that appear in the work of Arvo Leo are born out of playfulness and have their own poetic syntax in mind. They often circulate within various gift economies or germinate as improvisations in the sphere of the everyday. Leo’s practice is fascinated by and committed to mobility, a coming toward and moving away from defined spaces where art traditionally exists. Intrinsic to all his works is the flexibility of their meaning within the specific environments in which they appear and their openness to being shaped by the people he encounters. His rambunctious experiments take on many diverse forms, from film documentaries, to papier mâché helmets, to illegal portraits made with red wine. They may involve sleeping in trees around Holland, serving beer and asparagus through holes in a kitchen floor or stalking cows in India.
Last updated April 2017