Kristian Alanson Bruce

Region: Midwest

City / State: Chicago, IL

My work is concerned with disruption, calamity, and illogic. The paintings are not rational or sensible but try to make sense of events that don’t have a logical conclusion, cohesive narrative, or easy resolution. The result is often a feeling of inconclusiveness as things that are familiar and readily understood have been recontextualized into a series of incongruities and odd combinations. An emphasis on montage over narrative creates a string of conceptual confusions and a field of associations that relate to disjunction, discord, and disappearance. The various combinations of images, words, and objects are presented as an ensemble—one event. Objects float in spaces where they might not belong. I use fragments of speech, or writing, on top of paintings to add layers, and couple images together to create connections and conflicts of connotation that try to make sense of things when sense doesn’t necessarily apply and emphasize how contingency complicates the desire for conclusiveness.