This artist-designer has a practice intersecting with film, theater, product design, and fashion. Born in 1986 in General Santos City (Philippines), Leeroy New now lives and works in Quezon City (Philippines).
Originally trained as a sculptor, he tried everything from production design for film, to working with fashion designers, to creating 3D mock ups for commercial purposes. He was able to integrate this inclination to move from one mode of creative production to another as the spine of his creative practice.
Lately, New decided of a new challenge to take on ; cultivate a language for large scale public art, to answer the issue of art and art practitioners (in)visibility in the Philippines. Through Leeroy’s persistence, he managed to make immersive installations, using a variety of found objects directly sourced from the immediate material culture of his current environment.
New has recently ventured into product design and his works have been exhibited as part of the Design Philippines pavilion in the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan last 2013 and the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York this 2014. His pieces have also been annually exhibited in Manila FAME since 2012.
Leeroy New also experiments with wearable art and has recently shown his brand of experimental fashion at the Istanbul Forum Fashion Week in 2013. He also designs sets, costumes, and puppets for film, theater, and dance productions and is a constant collaborator of the site-specific theater company, Sipat Lawin Ensemble. He was the recipient of the 2013 Philstage Gawad Buhay! award for Outstanding Costume Design for Tanghalang Pilipino’s Ibalong.
