Solo Exhibition
Dates: September 19, 2026 – January 3, 2027
Welcome Remarks: Dr. Carola Brückner, District Councilor for Culture
Introduction: Dr. Ralf F. Hartmann, Artistic Director of ZAK
The visual worlds of Laura Bruce (* 1959 in East Orange, NJ, USA)—as impressive as they are enigmatic—emerge at the fertile intersection of figuration and abstraction. Large-format colored-pencil drawings, glazed ink paintings, and color-glazed ceramics characterize this extensive solo exhibition by the Berlin-based artist.
Drawing on countless micro-stories—quickly executed, mostly small-format drawings and ink sketches—the artist has developed, over the course of some 30 years, an extensive body of work consisting of large-format drawings and paintings. The micro-stories serve as a complex reservoir of figures, motifs, and visual reminiscences for numerous series of drawings in which both the fragmented human body and symbol-rich worlds play a central role. Laura Bruce’s work is characterized by the art of combination—whether it be the combination of forms, body fragments, and arabesques in individual sheets, or the large-scale combination of multi-part works in clusters and tableaux. Added to this is a recurring dialogue with art history, as seen, for example, in the comprehensive drawing series *Perpetual* (2017), in which the artist engages intensively with Francisco de Goya’s *Los Caprichos*, a series of socially critical aquatint etchings published in 1799.
Thus, against the backdrop of a resonant space of memory—both subjective and cultural—visual narratives emerge that rarely culminate in a concrete story, but rather form fields rich in associations of pictorial analogies and correspondences.
Fig.: Laura Bruce: *Cowgirl Blues*, *Cowgirl panties*, paper, pencil, gouache, 2024, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026.
