Bruce Burris
A Shrine for a Shrine

The Schneider Museum of Art presents A Shrine for a Shrine, a solo exhibition by Corvallis, OR based artist Bruce Burris (October 5th through December 9th, 2021). A 2018 Hallie Ford Fellow in the Visual Arts, Burris is known for ornate, brightly colored text-based paintings, collages and assemblages that mirror, or moreover, place a lens on observations of class and philosophical divides. Burris’ work has been noted as ebullient, trippy and unruly. A selection of recent work will be installed in the museum’s Main and Heiter galleries. The exhibition will be accompanied by essays from Bean Gilsdorf and Patrick Collier to be published in a forthcoming catalog made possible by a generous grant from The Ford Family Foundation of Roseburg, OR. Burris will also present a curated exhibition by self-taught neurodiverse artists titled, We Take the Long Way in the museum’s Treehaven gallery. For more than forty-five years Burris has been an advocate for neurodiverse artists and has founded several art centers devoted to cultural equity.

ARTIST QUOTE

“I wish to present viewers with paintings and drawings that are filled with a cacophony of information and layers of images and text exposing opinions of many sides. This work is an appeal to have some empathy and to listen on occasion to those of us who experience life differently than perhaps I do.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Bruce Burris is an artist who has worked and collaborated with artists who are neurodiverse for over 40 years and has served as founder/director/owner of a number of agencies/programs noted for crafting innovative supports which enable people to assume roles of significance in their community via participation in the arts.

As an artist Bruce’s content has always been about the issues of place – where he lives and the strife that is embedded in the locality. His focus is most always on issues that affect working people. He exhibits a high level of craft and corresponding ideas which are always gutsy in content and beautifully rendered and have a very specific aesthetic and trajectory in terms of his ideas.

Bruce has exhibited throughout the US, including the Portland2016 Biennial, curated by Michelle Grabner and most recently in solo exhibits at Summertime Gallery NYC and A.L.S.O/Shrine NYC. Burris has been awarded numerous fellowships including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Hallie Ford Foundation, the Kentucky State Arts Council-Al Smith Fellowship, the Delaware State Arts Council, the NEA-SAF. His work is included in numerous public and private collections including the University of Kentucky Art Museum. Burris attended the San Francisco Art Institute and is represented by March Gallery, NYC.