Saint Clair Cemin

Saint Clair Cemin (born Cruz Alta, Brazil in 1951) is a postmodern sculptor, professor, writer and film producer (610FILM). He lives and works in Woodbury, Connecticut and in Hydra, Greece. His work encompasses multiple styles, approaches, and materials, from neo-surrealism to furniture to toys in popular culture to the history of sculpture. Cemin became interested in sculpting as a teenager. Once interested in philosophy and physics, he began to focus his attention on art, drawing and working on illustrations for magazines. Cemin earned his degree at École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France, from 1975-1978 where he learned printmaking for three years. He moved to New York City shortly after, where he worked in several fields, mostly with printmaking. From 1979 to 1983, Cemin went in a soul-searching mission, after seeing the exhibition of Joseph bueys at the Guggenheim. He finally began making sculpture in the summer of 1983. The artist’s first exhibited sculpture was The Granny Ashtray, which has been described as an anti-modernist piece. Throughout the 1980s, Cemin became an integral part of NY’s East Village art scene. Some of his works from this era are on permanent exhibition at important institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. After those formative years in NYC Cemin moved to Egypt and then Paris to pursue sculpture in different environments and with different mediums. After 2010 he returned to NY and continues to create sculptural works in his Brooklyn studio. In 2012 Saint Clair Cemin had a public exhibition of works along Broadway in Manhattan. Of the several works exhibited on Broadway, one, Vortex at the corner of 57th street and Broadway, stood some 40 feet tall. In 2005, Richard Milazzo’s book on Saint Clair Cemin titled Saint Clair Cemin: Sculptor from Cruz Alta was published by Sikkema Jenkins & Co. A book of Saint Clair Cemin’s art writings have been published by Edgewise Press titled Fragments of a Mind: Stories and Comments on Art 1987-2004. In 1990 Saint Clair Cemins’ first public sculpture was installed in the town of Reston, Virginia. Since then he has had large public monuments installed throughout the world, including Open in Schaumberg, Illinois, Tree in Bergen, Norway, Spring in Båstads Kommun, Sweden. The monument, Supercuia in Porto Alegre, Brazil and was completed in 2003. His public works also include Fotini, Three Graces, Humanity, Yggdrasil, and Mercury Fountain. His custom works are featured prominently throughout Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature. Saint Clair Cemins’ latest monumental work is the marble boat Psyche. He received the Biennial Award from the Ueno Royal Museum and the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan in 1995. Saint Clair Cemin’s work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France; Emily Fisher Landau Collection, Long Island City, NY; Rooseum, Stockholm, Sweden; Eli Broad Family Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Inhotim, Minas Gerais, Brazil.