Richard Bruland Exhibits New Work at Lora Schlesinger Gallery

Rumour, 2015 by Richard Bruland | Image courtesy Lora Schlesinger Gallery

Richard Bruland (Art BFA 73) returns to Lora Schlesinger Gallery for his fourth solo-exhibition, titled Peripheries. The show is on view through Feb. 25 and features new abstract paintings by the artist. Lora Schlesinger Gallery is located at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, Calif.

In Peripheries, Bruland moves away from the abstracted natural world as his subject to focus purely on the relationship between the center and the edges of his canvas. He continues his layering process of applying multiple coats of acrylic paint with subtle color variations to create a marbled effect. From a distance, the three-dimensional quality of his work blends into a hazy color gradient, but, look closer and the panel becomes a complex surface alive with the movement of texture and color.

Born in Lima, Peru and raised in Geneva, Switzerland, Bruland’s paintings have been exhibited throughout the US, and are abstract representations of nature created through layers of paint that he intricately applies, sands down and then reapplies again. He is less interested in the figurative expression of nature than he is in the “atmosphere, light, color and shadow elements of nature experienced by people everywhere. By eliminating the specific, his paintings can help re-connect the viewer to their own memories, emotions and experiences.”

The Los Angeles Times has said of his work:

Bruland strikes an improbable balance between the soft, atmospheric hues at the surface and the brasher colors underneath, between tonal gradation and splintered dispersion, between the smooth, sanded surface and the uneven geologic layering it reveals. The act of sanding, moreover, lends each piece a tender air of meditative resonance.

Throughout the 1980s, Bruland ran Bebop Records and Fine Art in Reseda, Calif., where he held intimate performances with musicians ranging from Jane’s Addiction to Henry Rollins to Beck. For every event, Bruland illustrated a poster to display in his shop window. Though Bebop Records closed its doors in 1990, Bruland’s contribution to the cultural landscape of the San Fernando Valley is evident in the 1,000-plus handmade posters he created for Bepop’s performances. His poster art is now on display in the Oviatt Special Collections and Archives at California State University at Northridge, and online in their digital archive.