Laura Bruce

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

Life
Bruce studied painting at The State University of New Paltz, New York and sculpture 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. 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 in a program including Jan Köchermann & Doppelgenscher, Diamanda Galas, and Killl.

Work
Her work explores drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, video and performance. 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echoes of 19th century European Romantic painting and Hudson River School painting in the U.S. Bruce often works with historical references, which she approaches from a contemporary perspective, for instance in her installation Perpetual, a work of 79 drawings based on Francisco Goya's Los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 and Sabrina van der Ley) at the Norwegian Museum of Contemporary Art 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 Berlinische Galerie, 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 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

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

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, ISBN 978-3-8030-3398-7. (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. ISBN 978-3-7319-0237-9. (Kupferstichkabinett Berlin. Text von Andreas Schalhorn.)
 * 2015: Passion. Fan Behavior and Art. ISBN 978-3-941230-45-3. (Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. Text by Christoph Tannert)
 * 2014: Paperworlds. ISBN 978-3-86206-333-8. (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. ISBN 978-3-88423-406-8. (Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg. Text by Thomas Röske)
 * 2013: Die Kunst der Zeichnung. (Kunstverein Essenheim / Altes Rathaus Ingelheim, Text by Andreas Preywisch)
 * 2012: Drawing Biennale. ISBN 978-3-929947-47-2. (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. ISBN 978-3-0346-0367-6. (eds. Helmut Germer and Thomas Neeser)
 * 2010: Laura Bruce: The Castle Drawings. Birkhäuser, Basel 2010, ISBN 978-3-941560-71-0. (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. ISBN 978-3-86572-516-5. (Texts by Mark Gisbourne and Uta Grundmann)
 * 2002: Wächsernde Identitäten. (Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin)
 * 2002: Thin Skin. ISBN 978-0-916365-64-6. (Independent Curators International, New York)
 * 2002: Private Affairs. (Kunsthaus Dresden)

Press

 * 2017: BOMB Magazine, 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, Norwegian Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway
 * 2010: Picture disk vinyl release, West Germany, Berlin
 * 2009: The Carnival Within, Uferhallen, Berlin