Rooted

An installation by Leonard Ursachi. Curated by Matilda McQuaid.

Opening Thursday, July 17, 2025, 6:30 - 8:30 pm.

Saturdays and Sundays 12 - 6 pm and by appointment.

Canton Projects, 142A Plymouth Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201

The nature of home

For decades, Ursachi has scavenged the area close to his studio in DUMBO, salvaging driftwood lodged on the East River’s shore; cobblestones displaced by construction; discarded remnants of the original Brooklyn piers and railroad line.

The central element of Rooted is comprised of a white cement table, chair and lamp grouped to evoke a modest living room or primal shelter. Palimpsests, they bear traces of their source:  the lamp and table were cast from driftwood and the chair from planks from a long abandoned DUMBO pier.

Displayed on the gallery walls and floor are small sculptures, drawings, and watercolors, along with several salvaged objects that served as sources for the art.

The embodied essence of memory

According to curator McQuaid, “When Leonard defected from Romania, he could not return. His art speaks to the nature of home and the physical, embedded essence of memory. Rooted is a gathering of objects he has collected and transformed, each with a deep sense of place and time, both past and present.”

The root source

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