"I curate exhibitions using many of the same abilities I rely on as an artist. I look for ways to pack exhibitions with layers of meaning and striking forms, and to meet multiple objectives at once. But, unlike my efforts in the studio, the gallery is for the collaborative expressions of a community." --Bruce Linn
Installation photograph from "ReSOURCE," Cressman Center, Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville, curated by Bruce Linn. Photo: Rachel Seed
FEATURED EXHIBITIONS:

The Death of Painting Is Dead

Hite Galleries-Schneider Hall, University of Louisville
January 14 – February 14, 2010

Exhibition Catalogue (8.3 MB - PDF)

Installation Photography (13.6 MB - PDF)

As legend has it, the 19th-century French History painter Paul Delaroche declared, “From today, painting is dead,” when he encountered a daguerreotype, and saw the challenge photography posed to the role of the painter. 

This exhibition features ten contemporary painters from around the United States. Their work demonstrates that painting did not die, only the limited assumptions of what a painting was, or could be, and what the artist’s role is, or could be.

Artists include: Denise Burge (Cincinnati), Sean Garrison (Louisville), Darren Haper (Dayton, OH), Jake Heustis (Louisville), Steven L. Jones (Chicago), Mark Masyga (NYC), Kim Piotrowski (Chicago), Letitia Quesenberry (Louisville), Carole Silverstein (LA), & Joe Vajarsky (Chicago)

ReSOURCE

Artists who use collecting to create or inspire their work

Hite Galleries-Cressman Center, University of Louisville
January 16 - February 16, 2008

Exhibition Catalogue (27.3 MB - PDF)

Installation Photography (9.2 MB - PDF)

Writers must read, musicians listen, and artists must look.  In addition to visiting museums and galleries and leafing through art publications, many artists collect.

All of the works in this show would be difficult to imagine without the artist first being informed by their habits of collecting. Work by each artist is featured along with a selection of materials the artist collected to create or inspire their work.

Artists include: Don Baum (Chicago), Roger Brown (Chicago), Raymond Graf(Louisville), Niels Köhler (Prague, CZ), Kathleen Lolley (Louisville), Rennie Sparks (Albuquerque), Caroline Waite (Louisville), & Chris Ware (Chicago)

Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars: Death, Reverence, & the Struggle for Equality in America

Betty Rymer Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
December 17 - February 2, 1994

Exhibition Catalogue (24.8 MB - PDF)

Installation Photography (1.5 MB - PDF)

Honoring the dead, commemorating historic events, and creating heroes, has a history as old and as rich as the human race. And the United States has not been isolated from these natural outpourings.

Through a wide-spectrum of visual culture--from mass-produced commercial works, anonymous and folk art, to works by WPA artists and panels from the NAMES PROJECT QUILT—this exhibition shows the power contained in the insistence that “these dead shall not have died in vain.”

Artists include: Ben Shahn, Robert Rauschenberg, John Stuart Curry, Elizabeth Catlett, Archibald J. Motely Jr., Howard Finster, Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds, Brian Calvin, Drossos P. Skyllas, Lou Cabeen, Carlos Cortez Koyokuikatl, Howard Seth Miller, Bruce Thayer, & many more.

 
Curatorial Portfolio with Installation Photography (9.1 MB - PDF)

COMPLETE LIST OF CURATED EXHIBITIONS:

Forecastle Festival, Louisville, KY, 2010; curatorial committee member: the committee selects artists to create art installations for a large outdoor music festival; we work with the artists to develop themes & artworks appropriate for the venue; create publicity & other communication materials, including a cell-phone-accessed audio tour, to engage the audience in understanding the projects; & manage the projects to keep them within budget & on schedule

Richard Willenbrink: Figure Paintings, Drawings & Etchings, Cressman Center for Visual Arts Gallery, University of Louisville, 2010; worked with the artist to curate & organize exhibition; author the catalogue essay

The Death of Painting Is Dead, Hite Galleries-Schneider Hall, University of Louisville, 2010; curate & organize exhibition; author the catalogue essay

ReSOURCE: Artists who use collecting to create or inspire their work, Cressman Center for Visual Arts Gallery, University of Louisvill, 2008; curate & organize exhibition; author the catalogue essays

Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars:  Death, Reverence, & the Struggle for Equality in America, Betty Rymer Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1993; propose the exhibition; co-curate with Don Baum; author the catalogue essay; funded in part by the Illinois Arts Council

Meet Mr. Mulligan:  an Introduction to the Work of Mark Anthony Mulligan, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 1990; co-curate with Al Gorman author an accompanying essay

© 2001-2014 Bruce Linn