Carol Bruns

July 13–August 26, 2023
Centered view of three walls in a gallery, hanging on the wall to the left are three various shaped paper sculptures. The corner of the back left wall stands a life sized paper sculpture of similar material. On the back wall hangs two paper mask sculptures. In front of the wall to the right is a freestanding paper sculpture of a figure.

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023.

A forward facing view of three sculptures. On the left hangs a white mask with protruding bulges, in the center is a freestanding abstract figure with raised arms, and to the right is a dark brown, textured mask.

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023.

View of two gallery walls, one in front of the other. The freestanding wall closest to the viewer has an abstract sculpture of a figure standing centered to the wall. Another freestanding sculpture can be seen to the left corner. The wall to the back holds a mask and a head shaped sculpture on a wooden plinth.

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023.

An angled gallery view. In front of the left wall stands a sculpture shaped like a figure, and on the wall to the right are three sculptures. To the far left the sculpture is freestanding, and to the right the two sculptures resembling heads rest on wooden plinths.

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023.

A grouping of sculptures installed against adjacent gallery walls. Standing in front of the two walls are three abstract sculptures, two on wooden plinths and the forward facing sculpture with an animate face stands tallest in the front. Along the walls are three face-like, abstract sculptures, two on the left wall and one far left on the back wall.

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023.

A forward facing view of four equal distance sculptures. To the left is a rectangular white mask hung up, in the center are two freestanding sculptures, one is a head resting on a plinth, and one figure installed on the ground. To the right is a black one eyed mask hanging on the wall.

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023.

A frontal view of three equal distance sculptures. There are two masks hanging on the left and center of the wall, with a freestanding sculpture to the right. The outermost sculptures have discernible faces, while the center sculpture is abstract.

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023.

An angled gallery view of Fringe Elements placed center between two walls. In the back are three sculptures, one standing on the ground and one on a wooden plinth, as well as a gray mask hung on the wall.

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023.

A forward facing gallery view of Fringe Elements. Depicting all of the sculptures in their various sizes, shapes and colors.

Carol Bruns, Fringe Elements, 2023, plastic, bamboo, paper, paint, Dimensions variable. 12 parts.

An off white sculptural mask hung on a white wall. There are three circular holes in the mask representing a set of eyes and a mouth with various sized shapes protruding from the mask.

Carol Bruns, Meltdown, 2022, cardboard, styrofoam, paper, plaster, 21 × 16 × 9 in.

A brown, round textured mask hung on a white wall, the eyes are protruding cylinders and the mouth is a rectangular indentation.

Carol Bruns, Forest Spirit, 2022. Paper, plaster, bamboo, dirt, ash, pine needles, bitumen, 15 × 15 × 16 in.

An off white sculpture in an upside down triangular shape tied at the bottom.

Carol Bruns, Prisoner, 2022. Paper, plaster, hemp, 30 × 20 × 5 in.

Press Release

White Columns is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of recent work by the Brooklyn-based artist Carol Bruns (b. 1943, Des Moines, Iowa.) This is Bruns’ largest individual exhibition to date and her first in Manhattan in more than two decades. Bruns’ exhibition comprises a group of more than twenty wall-, pedestal- and floor-based figurative sculptures made over the past two years, including a major new sculptural installation, Fringe Elements, 2023.

Writing about her intentions and motivations Bruns has said:

My sculptures inquire into the human condition. I improvise life-sized human figures from common materials by assemblage. Its outsider vocabulary enlists bitumen, chalk, ash and dirt, teeth, and hemp as well as paper, Styrofoam, bamboo, and plaster. In 1930 Andre Breton suggested “that there exists a certain point of the mind at which life and death, the real and the imagined, past and future, the communicable and the incommunicable, high and low, cease to be perceived as contradictions. …” The surrealists searched to find and fix this point. My experience of this contradictory level in the human mind is the mythic, a type of consciousness where divergent potentials of the human can be encompassed within a single image or figure. An ancient example is the figure of Janus, a god who faces opposite directions yet is a single being, both life-giving and death-dealing. I utilize this theme to give unreason, the irrational, even the bestial its due, not as approval but to acknowledge its part in the forces that bring culture into existence and sustain it. It establishes a practical relationship to the catastrophic violence of our times, for the enemy is always part of ourselves.

 

 

Carol Bruns (b. 1943) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from New York University in 1966, and subsequently attended the Art Students League and l’Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris. Her work has been exhibited since the 1970s, initially at OK Harris Gallery in a 1975 group exhibition curated by Patterson Sims, and most recently in the group exhibition ‘Women of Spirit’ at New York’s Zurcher Gallery in 2022. Her current exhibition at White Columns is the largest presentation of her work to date, and her first solo exhibition in Manhattan in two decades.

To learn more about Bruns’ work, visit her website: www.carolbruns.com

 

 

Carol Bruns’ exhibition is a part of White Columns 2023 summer programs that focus on the work of artists who are currently represented in White Columns’ Curated Artists Registry. Founded in the early 1980s the Registry provides a platform for artists – of all kinds – currently without gallery representation in New York. The Registry currently includes the work of more than 500 individual artists. To learn more about the Registry and how to submit your work for consideration, please visit: registry.whitecolumns.org

 

For further information about this exhibition contact: violet@whitecolumns.org

Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11am to 6pm.

Checklist

Related Press

Centered view of three walls in a gallery, hanging on the wall to the left are three various shaped paper sculptures. The corner of the back left wall stands a life sized paper sculpture of similar material. On the back wall hangs two paper mask sculptures. In front of the wall to the right is a freestanding paper sculpture of a figure.
A forward facing view of three sculptures. On the left hangs a white mask with protruding bulges, in the center is a freestanding abstract figure with raised arms, and to the right is a dark brown, textured mask.
View of two gallery walls, one in front of the other. The freestanding wall closest to the viewer has an abstract sculpture of a figure standing centered to the wall. Another freestanding sculpture can be seen to the left corner. The wall to the back holds a mask and a head shaped sculpture on a wooden plinth.
An angled gallery view. In front of the left wall stands a sculpture shaped like a figure, and on the wall to the right are three sculptures. To the far left the sculpture is freestanding, and to the right the two sculptures resembling heads rest on wooden plinths.
A grouping of sculptures installed against adjacent gallery walls. Standing in front of the two walls are three abstract sculptures, two on wooden plinths and the forward facing sculpture with an animate face stands tallest in the front. Along the walls are three face-like, abstract sculptures, two on the left wall and one far left on the back wall.
A forward facing view of four equal distance sculptures. To the left is a rectangular white mask hung up, in the center are two freestanding sculptures, one is a head resting on a plinth, and one figure installed on the ground. To the right is a black one eyed mask hanging on the wall.
A frontal view of three equal distance sculptures. There are two masks hanging on the left and center of the wall, with a freestanding sculpture to the right. The outermost sculptures have discernible faces, while the center sculpture is abstract.
An angled gallery view of Fringe Elements placed center between two walls. In the back are three sculptures, one standing on the ground and one on a wooden plinth, as well as a gray mask hung on the wall.
A forward facing gallery view of Fringe Elements. Depicting all of the sculptures in their various sizes, shapes and colors.
An off white sculptural mask hung on a white wall. There are three circular holes in the mask representing a set of eyes and a mouth with various sized shapes protruding from the mask.
A brown, round textured mask hung on a white wall, the eyes are protruding cylinders and the mouth is a rectangular indentation.
An off white sculpture in an upside down triangular shape tied at the bottom.

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023. (Centered view of three walls in a gallery, hanging on the wall to the left are three various shaped paper sculptures. The corner of the back left wall stands a life sized paper sculpture of similar material. On the back wall hangs two paper mask sculptures. In front of the wall to the right is a freestanding paper sculpture of a figure.)

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023. (A forward facing view of three sculptures. On the left hangs a white mask with protruding bulges, in the center is a freestanding abstract figure with raised arms, and to the right is a dark brown, textured mask.)

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023. (View of two gallery walls, one in front of the other. The freestanding wall closest to the viewer has an abstract sculpture of a figure standing centered to the wall. Another freestanding sculpture can be seen to the left corner. The wall to the back holds a mask and a head shaped sculpture on a wooden plinth.)

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023. (An angled gallery view. In front of the left wall stands a sculpture shaped like a figure, and on the wall to the right are three sculptures. To the far left the sculpture is freestanding, and to the right the two sculptures resembling heads rest on wooden plinths.)

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023. (A grouping of sculptures installed against adjacent gallery walls. Standing in front of the two walls are three abstract sculptures, two on wooden plinths and the forward facing sculpture with an animate face stands tallest in the front. Along the walls are three face-like, abstract sculptures, two on the left wall and one far left on the back wall.)

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023. (A forward facing view of four equal distance sculptures. To the left is a rectangular white mask hung up, in the center are two freestanding sculptures, one is a head resting on a plinth, and one figure installed on the ground. To the right is a black one eyed mask hanging on the wall.)

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023. (A frontal view of three equal distance sculptures. There are two masks hanging on the left and center of the wall, with a freestanding sculpture to the right. The outermost sculptures have discernible faces, while the center sculpture is abstract.)

Carol Bruns, installation view, 2023. (An angled gallery view of Fringe Elements placed center between two walls. In the back are three sculptures, one standing on the ground and one on a wooden plinth, as well as a gray mask hung on the wall.)

Carol Bruns, Fringe Elements, 2023, plastic, bamboo, paper, paint, Dimensions variable. 12 parts. (A forward facing gallery view of Fringe Elements. Depicting all of the sculptures in their various sizes, shapes and colors.)

Carol Bruns, Meltdown, 2022, cardboard, styrofoam, paper, plaster, 21 × 16 × 9 in. (An off white sculptural mask hung on a white wall. There are three circular holes in the mask representing a set of eyes and a mouth with various sized shapes protruding from the mask.)

Carol Bruns, Forest Spirit, 2022. Paper, plaster, bamboo, dirt, ash, pine needles, bitumen, 15 × 15 × 16 in. (A brown, round textured mask hung on a white wall, the eyes are protruding cylinders and the mouth is a rectangular indentation.)

Carol Bruns, Prisoner, 2022. Paper, plaster, hemp, 30 × 20 × 5 in. (An off white sculpture in an upside down triangular shape tied at the bottom.)