Laura Bruce (born September 28, 1959) is an American contemporary artist living in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Life

Bruce studied

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

at The State University of New Paltz, New York and

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

at The Slade School of Fine Art in London. She has been visiting professor at the Exeter School of Art, The Slade School of Fine in London, the Berlin-Weissensee Kunsthochschule, and the

Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institution is the product ...

. Bruce has taught at the summer academies in Leipzig, Bremerhaven, Dresden, and at the Summer Workshops at the Neo Rauch Grafikstiftung. She is an art educator at the Otto Hahn School in Berlin. Laura Bruce is the lead singer in the concept band Dangerpony, who performed live in 2012 for the exhibition opening ''I Wish This Was A Song'' at the

Norwegian Museum of Contemporary Art The Norwegian Museum of Contemporary Art () is a museum in Oslo, Norway. Since 2003, it is administratively a part of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design. History The Norwegian Museum of Contemporary Art was established in 1988 ...

in a program including Jan Köchermann & Doppelgenscher, Diamanda Galas, and Killl.

Work

Her work explores

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

, installation,

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

and

performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

. Large-scale black and white graphite drawings are an important part of her oeuvre. They are characterized by bold strokes, clear contrasts of black and white, and a distinctive representation of nature as power / phenomenon / myth and the human relationship to it. Her drawing process of detailed mark making against smooth, large surfaces of complex gray tones. Her drawings have echoes of 19th century European Romantic painting and Hudson River School painting in the U.S. Bruce often works with historical references, which she approaches from a contemporary perspective, for instance in her installation ''Perpetual'', a work of 79 drawings based on Francisco Goya's '' Los Caprichos'', which she showed in full for the first time at Haus am Waldsee Museum in Berlin in 2018. Or her drawing / sound installation ''Goodbye is Half the Words You Know'' (2009-2013), where Bruce presents 10 portraits of classic country singers and reinterprets their songs with her band, Dangerpony. A part of this work was exhibited in 2016 in the exhibition ''Passion - Fan Behavior and Art'' (curated by Christoph Tannert) at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin and the Ludwig Museum, Budapest. It was shown in full in the group exhibition ''I Wish This Was A Song'' (curated by

Stina Högkvist Stina Högkvist is a Swedish art curator and an art historian. Together with Norwegian curator Marianne Zamecznik, she founded the Simon Says curatorial platform in Stockholm, Sweden, and ran it between 2001 and 2003. She has been working at the ...

and Sabrina van der Ley) at the

in 2013.

Public collections

Bruce' works can be found in the collections of the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (Artothek and the Video-Forum), the

Kupferstichkabinett Berlin The Kupferstichkabinett, or Museum of Prints and Drawings, is a Print room, prints museum in Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Berlin State Museums, and is located in the Kulturforum on Potsdamer Platz. It is the largest museum of graphic art ...

, the

Berlinische Galerie The Berlinische Galerie is a museum of modern art, photography and architecture in Berlin. It is located in Kreuzberg, on Alte Jakobstraße, not far from the Jewish Museum. The Berlinische Galerie collects art created in Berlin since 1870 with a ...

, the Collection of the City of Mainz and the Vattenfall Foundation, Berlin.

Public commissions

Laura Bruce's large-format (10 x 6 m) site-specific commission, "De Septentrione ad Astrum" is a permanent mural realized in 2015 in

Aschersleben Aschersleben () is a town in the Salzlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated approximately 22 km east of Quedlinburg, and 45 km northwest of Halle (Saale). Geography Aschersleben lies near the confluence of the ...

in the Bestehornpark building and officially handed over to the city of Aschersleben.

Awards

* 2012: Losito Kunstpreis * 2010: Grant of the Senate for Cultural Activities, Berlin * 2008: Käthe Dorsch Foundation * 2004: Grant of the Senate for Cultural Activities, Berlin * 2004: Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn * 2003: Käthe Dorsch Foundation, Berlin

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions (selection)

* 2018: ''To Kiss or Kill'', Galerie Rompone, Cologne * 2015: ''Love and Other Machines'', New Art Projects, London, UK * 2015: ''BRUCE SILL'', with Heidi Sill, Kunsthaus Erfurt * 2011: ''Whippersnapper!!'', Fahnemann Projects, Berlin * 2011: ''Augenweide'', Vattenfall Foundation, Berlin * 2010: ''Holy Rollers'', with Hannah Dougherty, The Forgotten Bar, Berlin * 2008: ''The Hunt'', fruehsorge contemporary drawings * 2007: ''Night Twist'', Delikatessenhaus, Leipzig * 2006: ''Landowners'', Galerie Pankow, Berlin * 2005: ''Big Sky'', Galerie Ulrike Buschlinger, Wiesbaden * 2004: ''The Wide'', Büro für Kunst, Dresden

Group exhibitions

Publications

Catalogs

* 2018: ''Rohkunstbau XXIV: Achtung – Mind the Gap.'' (Text by Mark Gisbourne) * 2018: ''Laura Bruce – To Kiss or Kill.'' (Rompone Gallery, Cologne) * 2018: ''Laura Bruce – Sounds That Clouds Make.'' Wasmuth, Berlin 2018, . (Artloft and Alexander Ochs Berlin. Text by Gregory Volk) * 2016: ''What We Do For Love.'' (Studio Barbara Krimm. Text by Nicola Kuhn) * 2016: ''Moment und Dauer.'' (Parterre Gallery, Berlin. Texts by Kathleen Krenzlin, Jens Semrau and Christian Ulrich) * 2015: ''Wir kommen auf den Hund''. . (

. Text von Andreas Schalhorn.) * 2015: ''Passion. Fan Behavior and Art''. . (Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. Text by Christoph Tannert) * 2014: ''Paperworlds. ''. (eds. Valeska Hagenay and Sylvia Volz) * 2014: ''A Line is a Line is a Line''. (Pankow Gallery, Berlin. Texts by Anke Paula Böttcher, Anette Tietz, Nanne Meyer) * 2013: ''ungesehen und unerhört.'' . (Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg. Text by Thomas Röske) * 2013: ''Die Kunst der Zeichnung.'' (Kunstverein Essenheim / Altes Rathaus Ingelheim, Text by Andreas Preywisch) * 2012: ''Drawing Biennale''. . (Kunstverein Eislingen, Eislingen. Text by Günther Baumann) * 2012: ''I Wish This Was A Song''. (Nasjonal Museet – Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo. Text by Sabrina van der Ley) * 2011: ''Outdoor Excursions.'' (Burlington City Arts. Text by Gregory Volk) * 2011: ''Laura Bruce – Whippersnapper!!'' (Fahnemann Gallery, Berlin. Interview ny Andreas Schalhorn) * 2010: ''The First Dimension.'' Birkhäuser, Basel 2010. . (eds. Helmut Germer and Thomas Neeser) * 2010: ''Laura Bruce: The Castle Drawings''. Birkhäuser, Basel 2010, . (Texts by Jutta Mattern, Helmut Germer, Thomas Neeser) * 2009: ''Was ist dass?'' (espace artcore / JTM Gallery, Paris) * 2009: ''The Carnival Within''. (Uferhallen, Berlin. Texts by Gregory Volk and Sabine Russ) * 2008: ''Laura Bruce –The Hunt''. . (fruehsorge, Berlin. Text by Gregory Volk) * 2006: ''Laura Bruce – Landowners.'' (Pankow Gallery. Text von Christoph Tannert) * 2004: ''Laura Bruce. ''. (Texts by Mark Gisbourne and Uta Grundmann) * 2002: ''Wächsernde Identitäten.'' ( Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin) * 2002: ''Thin Skin.'' . (Independent Curators International, New York) * 2002: ''Private Affairs''. (Kunsthaus Dresden)

Press

* 2017: ''

BOMB Magazine ''Bomb'' (stylized in all caps as ''BOMB'') is an American arts magazine edited by artists and writers, published quarterly in print and daily online. It is composed primarily of interviews between creative people working in a variety of discipli ...

'', artist's supplement, Nr. 142 * 2007: ''Drunk on Dreams'', ''FUKT MAGAZINE'' * 2006: ''The Animation Issue'', ''FUKT MAGAZINE'' * 2005: Article: ''Endlich glücklich sitzen'', Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 22. März * 2004: Article: ''The hidden beauty of everyday objects we take for granted'', Scotland on Sunday, 29. Feb.

Dangerpony

* 2016: ''KGB Sounds'', Heimathafen Berlin * 2014: Podewil, Berlin * 2013: Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin * 2012: ''Missklang'', West Germany, Berlin * 2012: ''I Wish This Was A Song'',

, Oslo, Norway * 2010: Picture disk vinyl release, West Germany, Berlin * 2009: ''The Carnival Within'', Uferhallen, Berlin

References

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce, Laura 1959 births 20th-century American artists 21st-century American artists American contemporary artists American draughtsmen Draughtswomen Living people Artists from Berlin Artists from East Orange, New Jersey