SHANE CHARLES SMITH

Artist-in-Residence, 2021

“The work I created at Studio 170│Residency helped me transition to and from, as well as refine, my museum and public work practices. . . toward commercial galleries.” - Shane Charles Smith, Artist-in-residence, 2021

SHANE CHARLES SMITH

Artist-in-Residence, 2021

Shane Charles Smith

“The work I created at Studio 170│Residency helped me transition to and from, as well as refine, my museum and public work practices. . . toward commercial galleries.” - Shane Charles Smith, Artist-in-residence, 2021

GATHERING

Exhibition and Performance

December 2-11, 2021

Goethe-Institut Boston

Gathering, the latest exhibition by Shane Charles Smith, deals with the shift between appearance and disappearance and the divide of generational loss. His series Native Soil (2015-2020) commemorated his father’s work as the Penobscot surveyor after the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act. Hand-stitched hemp with soil from these lands, mixed with ash and paint, take the form of mapped terrain. Now, with Gathering, Smith has reimagined a work from this series in memoriam to his father, who passed on Memorial Day, 2020. He incorporated pieces commissioned from Maine-based craftsmen to create new work for this exhibition, which also features movement-based artist Kayva Yang. These works in their entirety are a meditation on the “body in the landscape,” as well as on the responsibility and representation within the personal history of Smith’s heritage.

Supported by the Goethe-Institut Boston, Gathering marks an important continuation in Smith’s work, emphasizing temporality, from the ephemeral to the sculptural. As is characteristic of his singular creations, Smith uses raw form materials (e.g., beeswax, clay, ash) for large-scale, process-based, and performance-aligned works.

Shane Charles Smith (b. 1983, Maine) lives and works between Bangor, ME, and Portland, and was the most recent recipient of the Space Gallery Studio Grant (2020-2021) in Portland. In addition to Gathering at the Goethe-Institut Boston (2021) and site-specific commission for Re-site, Space Gallery, at the Eastern Promenade, Portland, ME (2020), Smith has held recent exhibitions at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland (2020), MASS MoCA Studio Program (2020, 2019), I-Park Foundation (2019), Wassaic Project (2019), the School of Visual Arts (New York, NY, 2018), the ICA at Maine College of Art (Portland, ME, 2015), the Ackland Art Museum (Chapel Hill, NC, 2015), and the John and June Allcott Gallery (Chapel Hill, NC, 2015). Performance works include those held at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC, Columbia Sculpture Garden, NYC, and at the High Line, NYC. In 2016, Smith was awarded a permanent commission in the University of North Carolina sculpture garden. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

GATHERING

Exhibition and Performance

December 2-11, 2021

Goethe-Institut Boston

Gathering, the latest exhibition by Shane Charles Smith, deals with the shift between appearance and disappearance and the divide of generational loss. His series Native Soil (2015-2020) commemorated his father’s work as the Penobscot surveyor after the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act. Hand-stitched hemp with soil from these lands, mixed with ash and paint, take the form of mapped terrain. Now, with Gathering, Smith has reimagined a work from this series in memoriam to his father, who passed on Memorial Day, 2020. He incorporated pieces commissioned from Maine-based craftsmen to create new work for this exhibition, which also features movement-based artist Kayva Yang. These works in their entirety are a meditation on the “body in the landscape,” as well as on the responsibility and representation within the personal history of Smith’s heritage.

Supported by the Goethe-Institut Boston, Gathering marks an important continuation in Smith’s work, emphasizing temporality, from the ephemeral to the sculptural. As is characteristic of his singular creations, Smith uses raw form materials (e.g., beeswax, clay, ash) for large-scale, process-based, and performance-aligned works.

Shane Charles Smith (b. 1983, Maine) lives and works between Bangor, ME, and Portland, and was the most recent recipient of the Space Gallery Studio Grant (2020-2021) in Portland. In addition to Gathering at the Goethe-Institut Boston (2021) and site-specific commission for Re-site, Space Gallery, at the Eastern Promenade, Portland, ME (2020), Smith has held recent exhibitions at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland (2020), MASS MoCA Studio Program (2020, 2019), I-Park Foundation (2019), Wassaic Project (2019), the School of Visual Arts (New York, NY, 2018), the ICA at Maine College of Art (Portland, ME, 2015), the Ackland Art Museum (Chapel Hill, NC, 2015), and the John and June Allcott Gallery (Chapel Hill, NC, 2015). Performance works include those held at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC, Columbia Sculpture Garden, NYC, and at the High Line, NYC. In 2016, Smith was awarded a permanent commission in the University of North Carolina sculpture garden. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.