Dominique Labauvie: Dig

March 4 through July 2, 2017

Dominique Labauvie (French, born 1948), Resistance (2000), Forged steel, Gift of Elinor Gollay and Rex Brasell in honor of the Museum’s 50th anniversary.

The formal explorations of interdisciplinary artist Dominique Labauvie are rooted in both material and a highly developed relationship to philosophies of the drawn line. He has written: “When a line bends, it slows down; as it expands, it suddenly appears as a flat surface – it carves out its presence in space like a black hole. The ground (any ground: earth, wood or stone) hosts the forged lines as the landscape that for centuries has been mapped by rivers, roads, and highways. The line informs us about the absent forms, as only the missing remain in our memories, our books, and in our images. The line attests to the desire of thought.”

Dig brings together recent works by Mr. Labauvie in his signature media of steel and pastels. The theme of the ruin runs throughout, as he seems to take on the role of archaeologist, digging into the earth’s histories to try to understand their effect on current events.

Born in Strasbourg, France, Mr. Labauvie has resided in Tampa since 1998 with his wife, master printer Erika Greenberg-Schneider, founder of Bleu Acier studio and gallery. He earned his BA in literature and philosophy from the Academy of Colmar and studied art history at the University of Strasbourg. He concentrated on sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and later taught
at the École des Beaux-Arts in Tourcoing, France. He has shown his work internationally.

He is represented in the collections of the Musée des arts décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, in Paris; Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Céret, France; and closer to home, the MFA and the Boca Raton Museum of Art. Mr. Labauvie has been commissioned to create large-scale public sculptures in Paris, Dijon, and Tampa. This is his first Spotlight exhibition at the MFA, organized by Curator of Contemporary Art Katherine Pill.