Bruce Linn received a BFA (1988) and MFA (1992) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

While recognized for his paintings, Bruce Linn has explored multiple disciplines and media. As a singer, lyricist, and musician, Linn was the front man for a number of bands, including “Folks On Fire” (Louisville, 1980s) and “Adult Entertainment” (Chicago, 1990s).  In 2013, he began to write and self produce Web videos that combine his visual imagery with sound and, both, poetic and satiric narrative.

The imagery of his frequently large-scale paintings, suggest mythic visual narratives, sometimes, containing heroic or iconic figures, and other metaphoric images. They are influenced by the works of 19th-century Symbolist artists, like Odilon Redon and Arnold Bøcklin, the satiric works of James Ensor and Jose Posada, and the Czech Illustrators Zdenek Mezl and Pavel Brazda.

In 1996, Linn was commissioned by writer, filmmaker and Los Angeles resident Chris Iovenko to create Building America, a mural-like oil painting composed of nine canvases, each six-by-six-feet (spanning fifty-four feet in its entirety), that traces the history of the United States. In 2002, he accepted an offer of a two-year residency and travel fellowship in Prague (CZ) by Prague resident and philanthropist John Caulkins. And, in 2009, Linn received an Al Smith Individual Artist Grant from the Kentucky Arts Council.

Linn has also curated a number of exhibitions, including, most recently, “The Death of Painting Is Dead” (2010), and ”ReSOURCE: Artists who collect to create or inspire their work” (2008), for the Hite Galleries at the University of Louisville, where he was the Assistant Director.

Bruce Linn currently lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

 

Click Here for Arist's C.V. and Exhibition History

 

© 2001-2014 Bruce Linn