142A Plymouth Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Open by appointment

Contact:  cantonprojectsnyc@gmail.com; https://www.cantonprojects.info/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A Grove of Impossible Weapons

Brooklyn, New York. March 23, 2026. Canton Projects is pleased to announce the opening of American Arsenal, an installation by artist Leonard Ursachi, on Thursday, April 2, 2026 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm. American Arsenal will be on view through May 2, 2026.

In the center of the gallery will be a mound of sand, from which will rise a grove of impossible weapons:  pristine spearheads, hand-blown in glass, crowning tall, wooden poles. The glass, fragile and transparent, contradicts associations of primitive violence and rage. The weapons of American Arsenal, standing to protect an unnamed territory, both menace and seduce, while their sensuous, rippled surfaces distort what lies behind.

Ursachi, a Romanian-born American artist, is the founder of Canton Projects. He grew up in a dictatorship, from which he defected, and spent years border-hopping before settling in New York. His art reflects our contemporary world of porous borders, vulnerable shelters, and mutating identities. Leitmotifs throughout his work are lost or buried histories, the repercussions of environmental choices, and the impact of borders on cultures and individuals.

Ursachi has exhibited internationally, including a solo show in 2008 at Romania’s National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest.

Elisabeth Sussman, Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, has called Ursachi’s work “thought provoking and quite moving . . . dealing with an important aspect of our culture and . . . both sensitive and intelligent.”

Photographs available upon request.