Janet Bruce

  • Selected Works


  • Previous Exhibitions

    Locus Amoenus
    14 January 2023 – 26 February 2023
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    Lady Painters: Inspired by Joan Mitchell, Second Street Gallery
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    Landscape Re-Imagined,a group show in collaboration with Second Street Gallery’s Lady Painters exhibition
    Summer 2019
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    Water in the Desert: New Paintings
    Janet Bruce
    31 March – 7 May 2017

    Visions for 2016
    Janet Bruce, J. M. Henry, Deborah Kahn, Martha Saunders
    22 January – 6 March 2016
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    Presently Observed: Recent Work in Wax and Pigment
    Janet Bruce
    11 October – 17 November 2013
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    New Vistas
    Isabelle Abbot, Karen Blair, Janet Bruce, Kris Iden, Susan Murphy
    31 March – 6 May 2012
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  • Statement

    My paintings are a conversation about displacement and memory.

    Each piece is a dance between chaos and control, about fixing a gesture without losing the energy of that gesture. They start with a remembered experience of a place, a landscape, or an interior. Using forms within forms, inscribed lines, and large planar shifts, I explore the light, color, and structural relationships of an imagined space. I take pleasure in layering washes, weaving verticals and horizontals, scumbling, scraping, all the while being mindful of the overall composition.

    I paint to create visual statements that reverberate within.

  • Biography

    For three decades I have been exploring the intersection between abstract painting and landscape. My work has been shown across DC and Virginia, including exhibitions at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (curated by William Christenberry), Second Street Gallery (Charlottesville), and a show at Riverviews Artspace juried by Virginia Museum of Fine Arts curator Robin Nicholson. My paintings are in a number of private and public collections, such as those of the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center (Charlottesville) and the Washington Gas Light Company.
    Currently, in New York city, I am working with Maurizio Pellegrin in the studio intensive program at the National Academy.

  • Curriculum Vitae

    Education
    BA Fine Arts, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
    The Art Institute of Boston, Boston, MA
    The Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC
    Studio Intensive, National Academy School, New York, NY

    Solo Exhibitions
    2017 Water in the Desert: New Paintings, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA
    2013 Presently Observed: Recent Work in Wax and Pigment, Les Yeux du Monde Gallery, Charlottesville, VA

    Selected Exhibitions
    2017 Gerald Bland, NY, NY
    2017 Mini-Print Exhibition, Manhattan Graphics, NY, NY (Juror: Jennifer Farrell, Associate Curator of Prints, Metropolitan Museum of Art)
    2017 Creative Mischief, National Academy Museum, NY, NY
    2017 ARTOUR-O il MUST a Firenze XXV edizione XIII, Montedomini, Florence, Italy
    2017 Second Street Gallery Benefit Art Auction, Charlottesville, VA
    2017 Women’s Initiative Benefit Art Auction, Charlottesville, VA
    2016 International Contemporary Art Exhibitions, Le Logge, Assisi, Italy
    2016 Shorelines, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA
    2015 Seventh Annual Juried Show
    2015 Riverviews Artspace, Lynchburg, VA (Juror: Mary Holland of VFMA)
    2014 Second Street Gallery Benefit Art Auction, Charlottesville, VA
    2012 New Vistas: Isabelle Abbot, Karen Blair, Janet Bruce, Kris Iden, Susan Murphy, Les Yeux du Monde Gallery, Charlottesville, VA
    2010 Members Exhibition, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA
    2009 First Annual Riverviews Juried Exhibition, Riverviews Artspace, Lynchburg, VA (Juror: Robin Nicholson, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA)
    2006 Momentum Pilates Studio, Charlottesville, VA
    2002 White Walls Gallery, The Corcoran College of Art and Design, Washington, DC (Curator, William Christenberry)
    2001 White Walls Gallery, The Corcoran College of Art and Design, Washington, DC (Curator, William Christenberry)
    1990 Susan Connolly Carroll Gallery, Washington, DC
    1989 Main Street Gallery, Chincoteague, VA Staff Exhibition, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

    Selected Honors and Awards
    2016 Fellow, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA
    2016 Resident Artist, Arte Studio Ginestrelle, Assisi, Italy
    1989 Honorable Mention, Montgomery County Arts Council, Bethesda, MD (Juror: Alan Feltus, American University, Washington, DC)
    1980 Anasthasios Skouras Prize, Painting, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
    1980 Amherst College Wise Scholarship for Painting Residency with Gabriel Laderman, Queens College, CUNY, Huntington, NY

    Collections
    Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
    Momentum Pilates Studio, Charlottesville, VA
    Washington Gas Light Company, Washington, DC
    Private collections in Charlottesville, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Washington, DC, France, and Italy

    Publications
    Sargent, Sarah. Water in the Desert Exhibition Catalogue (Issuu)
    Merli, Marina. “artestudioginestrelle” International Contemporary Art Exhibition, Art Gallery Le
    Logge, December 1-8, 2016
    Sargent, Sarah. “Below the Surface”, C-ville Weekly, Feb. 24 – March 1, 2016
    Sargent, Sarah. Presently Observed, Recent Work in Wax and Pigment Exhibition Catalogue
    Sargent, Sarah. “A Brush with Spring at Les Yeux du Monde.” C-ville Weekly, April 3-9, 2012.