BIO
Hanna Bruer is an abstract artist in Madison, WI. Her paintings combine illegible text and grunge textures to create visceral atmospheres. Her work is inspired by her struggles with mental health and the canvas serves as a personal journal to create something beautiful out of adversity. Viewers often enjoy the aesthetic of her work, but truly fall in love with the work once they learn the story and inspiration behind each piece. She has permanent installations throughout the Midwest, including Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and Dane County Credit Union, and has worked with the National Alliance on Mental Illness for their Healing Art Shows. She is a current juried member of the Madison Art Guild and certified Art Therapy Practitioner.
Hanna also offers her work as performance through live painting. She converts a blank canvas into an active work of art, letting the bystander experience her creative process from start to finish. She has created paintings at venues such as the Majestic Theater and Memorial Union Terrace in Madison, as well as for Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Nights. Her work and story have been featured in the Wisconsin State Journal, Madison Magazine, Isthmus, and Cap Times publications in addition to being featured on NBC News.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Every emotion deserves to be felt, held, and heard. Living with Borderline Personality Disorder means I experience emotions fast, deep, and intensely - and often all at once. There’s joy that electrifies, sorrow that consumes, anger that burns, and love that overwhelms. My work is my way of navigating that emotional terrain—a way to process what feels too big to hold alone, a way to sift through the weight and pull out something beautiful. It is wildly personal.
Through gestural, abstract landscapes on canvas and wood, I translate these feelings into form. I use acrylic paint and a range of materials, building layers of texture, movement, and noise. Marks can be spontaneous or intentional, gentle or bold. Written elements thread through the surface—fragments of an internal language, scattered private thoughts, or emotional residue. These marks don’t ask to be read, but rather felt. I work with my hands over brushes, embracing the mess, the rawness, the direct contact. The process itself becomes an emotional act—sometimes tender, sometimes chaotic, always cathartic.
My paintings don’t offer perfection or answers. They ask questions, provoke reflection, and invite you into a shared emotional space. They speak in riddles, much like the internal world from which they’re born - not easily understood, but deeply human. There’s no right way to engage with them. So, dive in, get lost, see what you can read in the work. Maybe, in that mess, you'll find something that feels honest, something you understand on your own personal level.
CV
HANNA BRUER hanna@hannabruer.com | 608-571-6958 | Madison WI
Born in 1984 in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin.
EDUCATION
2025
Scholistico, Art Therapy Practitioner Certification
Efficient Therapist, Therapeutic Arts Certification
2008
University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, Bachelor of Arts, Studio and 2-Dimensional Art Emphases
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS [*denotes group show]
2025
Dreams In the Undergrowth, Carnelian Art Gallery, Madison WI*
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, 100Arts, Madison WI*
Group Exhibition, Rogue’s Gallery, Madison WI*
2024
Madison Art Guild: A Community of Artists, Ballweg Art Gallery, Madison WI*
Group Exhibition, Rogue’s Gallery, Madison WI*
2023
The heART Show, North Street Cabaret, Madison WI*
First Fridays Art Show, North Street Cabaret, Madison WI*
2022
Solo Exhibition, Forward Craft and Coffee, Madison WI
The heART Show, DarkHorse Art Bar, Madison WI*
2021
Solo Exhibition, Madison Squash Workshop, Madison WI
2019
Quiet Control, Solo Exhibition, Monroe Arts Center, Monroe WI
Solo Exhibition, GNP, Madison WI
Solo Exhibition, Quivey’s Grove, Fitchburg WI
2018
NAMI Wisconsin's 12th Annual Healing Art Show, Lakeside St Coffee, Madison WI*
Solo Exhibition, Hawks Quindel SC, Madison WI
Solo Exhibition, Industrious, Madison WI
Solo Exhibition, Synergy Coworking, Madison WI
Fitch-Rona Art Crawl, Hop Haus Brewing, Verona WI
2017
In All This Vastness, Gib's, Madison WI*
Solo Exhibition, Hawks Quindel SC, Madison WI
Solo Exhibition, Synergy Coworking, Madison WI
Solo Exhibition, Alchemy, Madison WI
2016
Solo Exhibition, Lauer Realty Group, Madison WI
Dead and Buried, Fat City Emporium, Madison WI*
Fat City Emporium's First Friday Show, Winedown, Madison WI*
Fat City Emporium’s Gallery Night, Winedown, Madison WI*
Fat City Emporium’s Inaugural First Friday Show, Winedown, Madison WI*
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, Lauer Realty Group, Madison WI*
Solo Exhibition, Knupp & Watson & Wallman Advertising Agency, Madison WI
2015
Biting the Silver Tongue, Mother Fool’s Coffee House, Madison WI
NAMI Wisconsin’s 9th Annual Healing Art Show, VSA Wisconsin Gallery, Madison WI*
Finalist: Best in Show
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, VSA Wisconsin Gallery, Madison WI*
100Arts depART: Laika Boss, Madison WI*
Solo Exhibition, Electric Earth, Madison WI
2013
RAW: Encompass, High Noon Saloon, Madison WI*
SELECTED LIVE PAINTING PERFORMANCES
2026
Private Wedding, The Tinsmith, Madison WI
Malt House Tavern, Madison WI
2025
Private Wedding, Fort Atkinson WI
Dreams in the Undergrowth Opening Reception, Carnelian Art Gallery, Madison WI
Art64 Live Painting Tournament, Wauwatosa WI
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, 100Arts, Madison WI
Malt House Tavern, Madison WI
2024
Art64 Live Painting Tournament, Wauwatosa WI
2023
Live Painting, North Street Cabaret, Madison WI
Private Wedding, Madison Wi
Malt House Tavern, Madison WI
LiveStream Painting, Instagram Live
2022
Live Painting, Forward Craft and Coffee, Madison WI
Live Painting, Malt House Tavern, Madison WI
LiveStream Painting, Instagram Live
2021
LiveStream Painting, Instagram Live
2020
LiveStream Painting, Instagram Live
2019
Compression Book Release and Rock & Roll Show, High Noon Saloon, Madison WI
Live Painting, Malt House Tavern, Madison WI
Private Wedding, Edgewater Hotel, Madison WI
Private Event, Bliss Flow Yoga, Madison WI
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, Hawks Quindel SC, Madison WI
Live Painting, Malt House Tavern, Madison WI
2018
Live From The Nest - The Daily Cardinal, UW Madison Campus, WI
4th of July Special Event, Memorial Union Terrace, Madison WI
Live Painting, Malt House Tavern, Madison WI
Private Wedding, Milwaukee WI
Dane County Credit Union’s 84th Annual Meeting, Dane County Credit Union, Madison WI
Art Asana, Bliss Flow Yoga, Madison WI
Fitch-Rona Art Crawl, Verona Vision Care, Verona WI
Fitch-Rona Art Crawl, Hop Haus Brewing, Verona WI
2017
Live Painting, Malt House Tavern, Madison WI
Private Wedding, Wausau WI
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, Hawks Quindel SC, Madison WI
Private Fundraiser, Chicago IL
2016
Dead and Buried, Fat City Emporium, Madison WI
Homemade for the Holidays, Winedown, Madison WI
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, Matrix Coworking, Madison WI
This Is Our City hosted by Hive, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison WI
Majestic Theater 8th Annual SummerJam, Session 5, Madison WI
Majestic Theater 8th Annual SummerJam, Session 4, Madison WI
Majestic Theater 8th Annual SummerJam, Session 3, Madison WI
Majestic Theater 8th Annual SummerJam, Session 2, Madison WI
Marquette-Atwood Art Walk, Lauer Realty Group, Madison WI
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, Lauer Realty Group, Madison WI
2015
Private Fundraiser, Milwaukee WI
Women Empowering Women Fundraiser, WE International and Hawks Quindel, Madison WI
Private Wedding, Lake Windsor Golf Club, Windsor WI
Majestic Theater 7th Annual SummerJam, Session 4, Madison WI
Majestic Theater 7th Annual SummerJam, Session 3, Madison WI
Majestic Theater 7th Annual SummerJam, Session 1, Madison WI
COMMISSIONS, VIDEOS, AND PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS
2023
Sony Playstation Madison Office, Madison WI
Corporate Art Commission and Permanent Installation
2019
Hawks Quindel Law Firm, Madison WI, Permanent Installation
2018
Verona Vision Care, Verona WI, Permanent Installation
Dane County Credit Union, Madison WI, Permanent Installation
Music Video, "I Love You, I Steal Your Gas" by Mark Mallman and Dick Valentine, Live Painting Performance
2017
Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, Green Bay WI
Public Art Commission and Permanent Installation
2016
Validic, Durham, NC, www.validic.com, Corporate Art Commission and Permanent Installation
2015
Blue Gem Tattooing, Green Bay WI, Permanent Installation
WORKSHOPS TAUGHT
2025
Paint It Out: Venting Through Art, Carnelian Art Gallery, Madison WI
PRESS & LINKS
2022
Madison Magazine Hot List, September
2019
Catherine Capellaro, "Hanna Bruer's Grunge Art," Isthmus, Nov 7, Vol 44, Iss 45, p4
2018
NAMI Wisconsin's 12th Annual Healing Art Show, short biography, Madison WI, October, pg 14.
2017
Lindsay Christians, "The Art of the Sale," Cap Times, October 18.
2015
NAMI Wisconsin’s 9th Annual Healing Art Show, short biography, Madison WI, December, pg 13.
Laura Jones, “The Art of Healing,” Isthmus, October 2nd, Volume 40, #39. 32.
Amy Carlson, Television Interview, NBC15 WMTV, Madison WI, September 9.
2013
Jason Ocker, “Text, Trinkets, and Tape: A RAWesome Good Time,”
Project Famous Magazine. 58-59.
RAW: Natural Born Artists, Video Interview, Madison WI, October 17.
RAW: Natural Born Artists, artist profile, September.
AWARDS
2023 Madison Art Guild juried membership (current)