04 Mar 2009

Blane De St Croix at Smack Mellon

Blane De St Croix, Broken Landscape

The Broken Landscape project is based on recent travels along the entire Mexico/United States border. Research for the project involved traveling over 3,000 miles and exploring both the old and new federal fence still under construction. I visited 15 border crossings and spoke with people on both sides of the border communities (both in geography and ideology), including civilian residents, the fence contractors, US border patrol and journalists.

The Broken Landscape project reconstructs a selected section of this border as a monumental miniaturized section of the new fence and surrounding landscape. This sculpture for Smack Mellon's gallery runs almost one hundred feet in length through the entire space climbing varying heights and slicing between the gallery's columns and architectural space. The sculpture itself divides the space acting as a border or barrier for the viewer to be controlled by. Referencing the historical genre of landscape painting, Broken Landscape is a painstaking rendering of the land's topography and its established border.

My work utilizes sculptural object, installation and drawing. Employing a combination of natural and industrial materials. I am interested in articulating humankind's desire to take command over the earth --alluding to conflicts with ecology, politics, ourselves and the level of human absence and/or presence in industry. I often borrow from man-made elements and architectural environments and adjoin them with natural habitats, asking us to reflect on our precarious relationship with our surroundings.


Blane De St. Croix was born in Boston Massachusetts. He received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston. Selected exhibitions include: the Geisai Art Fair, Miami, organized by Takashi Murakami; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, Missouri; Gasworks Alternative Gallery, London; Side Street Projects Gallery, Santa Monica; L A Artcore, Los Angeles; Europos Parkas Sculpture Park, Vilniaus, Lithuania; Fieldgate Gallery, London; Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo; Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Palm Beach, Florida; and Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York. Selected reviews include: Art Net, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Denver Post, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, Public Television, New Art Examiner, Sculpture Magazine, The Palm Beach Post, and The Miami Herald. In 2001, Laumier Sculpture Park published a 32-page catalogue on De St Croix's work. De St. Croix has also been awarded many notable artist residencies and fellowships including: John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Foundry Artist Residency, Wisconsin; Gasworks Artist Studio Residency, Triangle Arts Trust, London; Sculpture Space, Inc., New York; Tyrone Gutherie Center, Ireland; two MacDowell Colony Fellowships, Peterborough, New Hampshire; an Art Omi Artist Residency, Ghent, New York; Artist in Residence, Henry Street Settlement, Abrons Art Center, New York and Artist Alliance Studio Program, New York City.


This exhibition is made possible with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Greenwall Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Eve Sussman and Smack Mellon's Members. Smack Mellon also receives generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, City Council Member David Yassky and the New York City Council, Bloomberg, Brooklyn Arts Council JPMorgan Chase Regrant Program, Fifth Floor Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Goldman, Sachs & Co., The Greenwich Collection Ltd., Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, Independence Community Foundation, Jean and Louis Dreyfus Foundation, Inc., Judith and Donald Rechler Foundation Inc., Lily Auchincloss Foundation Inc., Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Inc., The New York Community Trust, The Pinkerton Foundation, The Robert Lehman Foundation, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Inc., The Starry Night Fund of Tides Foundation, The Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, Inc., and William Talbott Hillman Foundation.

Space for Smack Mellon's programs is generously provided by the Walentas Family and Two Trees Management.