About

Bio

Hanna Bruer is an abstract artist in Madison, WI. Her expressionist paintings prominently feature illegible text imbedded in abstract layers and atmospheres. She has permanent installations throughout the midwest, including Northwestern Technical College and Dane County Credit Union. Bruer has worked with the National Alliance on Mental Illness for their Healing Art Shows, earning Best In Show Finalist in 2015. She has provided live painting performances 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 Isthmus and Cap Times publications, as well as NBC15 News.
After a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder in 2013, she found continued solace in her artwork and began using it as a coping skill. On top of an abstract atmosphere, the most identifiable aspect of her work is the use of text as imagery. The text is often an essay to herself; unspoken words of frustration and discovery involved with her daily fight for resilience. The importance of each gesture, word, and emotion reveal themselves in the layers of each piece. To combat self-doubt and insecurity, Hanna also offers her work as a performance, painting and baring her internal self in front of an audience. She converts a blank canvas into an active work of art, letting the bystander experience her creative process.

Artist Statement

Creation, contemplation, violence, destruction. My paintings are visual documentation of untold stories striving to find their voice. I draw my inspiration from inner dissonance, adverse experience, and unfailing resilience. Process holds the power to my work. I throw myself into each piece, attempting to unite the overbearing dichotomy of my being and to reach a temporary answer to an ever-changing question. Each piece is a complete thought jotted down and worked over until my brain has expelled its energy. The depth of my art lies in the impulse of the gesture, the emotion in the movement, and the pain of the unheard struggle. The use of text as image ties everything together to become not only a work of art, but an entire cathartic experience for both artist and audience. I aim for my work to inspire the viewer to wonder, to ask questions, and to reach inward for their own answers with reckless abandon. Dive in, design, emote, paint, expel, tell a story, repeat.

On the art of healing

Press, Publications, Videos, and Links

Artist CV

HANNA BRUER
hbruer@gmail.com |  hannabruer.com |  715-252-2787 |  Madison WI

EXHIBITION RECORD
[*denotes group show]
2019-2020 Quiet Control, Monroe Arts Center, Monroe WI
2019 Solo Exhibition, GNP, Madison WI
2019 Solo Exhibition, Quivey's Grove, Fitchburg WI
2018 NAMI Wisconsin's 12th Annual Healing Art Show, Lakeside St Coffee, Madison WI*
2018 Solo Exhibition, Hawks Quindel SC, Madison WI
2018   Solo Exhibition, Industrious, Madison WI
2018 Solo Exhibition, Synergy Coworking, Madison WI
2018   Fitch-Rona Art Crawl, Hop Haus Brewing, Verona WI
2017   In All This Vastness, Gib's, Madison WI
2017   Solo Exhibition, Hawks Quindel SC, Madison WI
2017   Solo Exhibition, Synergy Coworking, Madison WI
2017 Solo Exhibition, Alchemy, Madison WI
2016   Solo Exhibition, Lauer Realty Group, Madison WI
2016    Dead and Buried, Fat City Emporium, Madison WI*
2016 Homemade for the Holidays, Madison WI*
2016 Fat City Emporium's First Friday Show, Winedown, Madison WI*
2016 Fat City Emporium’s Gallery Night, Winedown, Madison WI*
2016 Fat City Emporium’s Inaugural First Friday Show, Winedown, Madison WI*
2016 Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Gallery Night, Lauer Realty Group, Madison WI*
2015 Solo Exhibition, Knupp & Watson & Wallman Advertising, Madison WI
2015 Biting the Silver Tongue, Mother Fool’s Coffee House, Madison WI
2015 NAMI Wisconsin’s 9th Annual Healing Art Show, VSA Wisconsin Gallery, Madison WI*
Finalist: Best in Show
2015 Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, VSA Wisconsin Gallery, Madison WI*
2015 100Arts depART: Laika Boss, Madison WI*
2013 Solo Exhibition, Electric Earth, Madison WI
2013 RAW: Encompass, High Noon Saloon, Madison WI*

LIVE PAINTING PERFORMANCES
2019 Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, Hawks Quindel SC, Madison WI
2019 Fitch-Rona Art Crawl, Quivey's Grove, Fitchburg WI
2019 14th Anniversary Special Event, Bliss Flow Yoga, Madison WI
2019 Live Painting, Malt House, Madison WI
2018 Live From The Nest - The Daily Cardinal, UW Madison Campus, WI
2018 4th of July Special Event, Memorial Union Terrace, Madison WI
2018   Live Painting, Malt House, Madison WI
2018 Private Wedding, Milwaukee WI
2018   DCCU's 84th Annual Meeting, Dane County Credit Union, Madison WI
2018   Bliss Flow Yoga, Madison WI
2018 Fitch-Rona Art Crawl, Verona Vision Care, Verona WI
2018   Fitch-Rona Art Crawl, Hop Haus Brewing, Verona WI
2017   Live Painting, Malt House, Madison WI
2017 Private Wedding, Wausau WI
2017   Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, Hawks Quindel SC, Madison WI
2017   Private Fundraiser, Chicago IL
2016   Dead and Buried, Fat City Emporium, Madison WI
2016   Homemade for the Holidays, Madison WI
2016   Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, Matrix Coworking, Madison WI
2016    This Is Our City hosted by Hive, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison WI
2016    Majestic Theater 8th Annual SummerJam, Session 5, Madison WI
2016    Majestic Theater 8th Annual SummerJam, Session 4, Madison WI
2016    Majestic Theater 8th Annual SummerJam, Session 3, Madison WI
2016    Majestic Theater 8th Annual SummerJam, Session 2, Madison WI
2016    Marquette-Atwood Art Walk, Lauer Realty Group, Madison WI
2016    Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night, Lauer Realty Group, Madison WI
2015    Private Fundraiser, Milwaukee WI
2015    Women Empowering Women Fundraiser, WE Int’l and Hawks Quindel, Madison WI
2015    Private Wedding, Lake Windsor Golf Club, Windsor WI
2015    Majestic Theater 7th Annual SummerJam, Session 4, Madison WI
2015    Majestic Theater 7th Annual SummerJam, Session 3, Madison WI
2015    Majestic Theater 7th Annual SummerJam, Session 1, Madison WI

COMMISSIONS, VIDEOS, AND PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS
2019 Hawks Quindel Law Firm, Madison WI, Commission and Permanent Installation
2018 SunSeed Research LLC, Madison WI, Permanent Installation
2018 Verona Vision Care, Verona WI, Commission and Permanent Installation
2018 Dane County Credit Union, Madison WI, Permanent Installation
2018 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

PRESS & LINKS
2018 NAMI Wisconsin's 12th Annual Healing Art Show, short biography, Madison WI, October, p 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, p 13.
2015 Laura Jones, “The Art of Healing,” Isthmus, October 2nd, Volume 40, #39. p 32.
2015 Amy Carlson, Television Interview, NBC15 WMTV, Madison WI, September 9.
2014 Etsy, artist profile with online store, since 2014.
2013 Jason Ocker, “Text, Trinkets, and Tape: A RAWesome Good Time,” Project Famous Magazine. p 58-59.
2013 RAW: Natural Born Artists, Video Interview, Madison WI, October 17.
2013 RAW: Natural Born Artists, artist profile, September.

EDUCATION
University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, BA, Studio and 2-Dimensional Art Emphasis, 2008

Bio

Artist Statement

Press, Publications, Videos, and Links

Artist CV

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