Andrew Leicester is a public artist born and educated in England who immigrated to the U.S. in 1970. He currently resides in Minneapolis, MN. For the past three decades, Mr. Leicester has created public art projects that range in size and scope from small courtyards to municipal transit plazas, park entrances and water gardens throughout the U.S., U.K. and Australia. Recent projects include “Parade of Floats”, sixteen sculptures lining pedestrian routes to the new Civic Center in San Jose, California, and “Flying Shuttles”, 27 integrated works into the exterior facade and courtyard of the new Bobcats Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Mr. Leicester has received numerous awards for his work as well as fellowships from the Bush Foundation, the McKnight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Internationally recognized as a public artist, as well as a popular lecturer and panelist, he feels his art should exist in the public domain and form links between its specific location and host community. The iconography of his work, often humorous and multilayered, is derived from extensive research of the various social, historical and environmental characteristics of each location. All convey a striking sense of place.
For his projects, Mr. Leicester produces a variety of artistic elements within variously scaled settings that engage the general public both physically and intellectually. His most recent work addresses the issues of sustainability, most specifically wind and solar power, and reclamation.