CRIS BRUCH - How Did I Get Here? - A 20 Year Survey June 21st - August 11th Above: Installation View - LAWRIMORE project - MAIN SPACE Left to right: CLEAVE, 2006; PERFECT LANDSCAPE, 2007; STRANGELAND, 2004

SKETCHBOOK, 2007 Wood, graphite, chalk 72 x 53 x 36 inches [SOLD]

SKETCHBOOK, 2007 [Detail] A 'crumpled page' sculpture made from 100s of facets cut from the large plywood sheets on which Bruch sketches his forms, gathers his conceptual thoughts, and computes the mathematical complexities of his work.

PERFECT LANDSCAPE, 2007 Wood, Epoxy P.O.R. In the weeks leading up to his retrospective, Cris Bruch was working on Perfect Landscape in his northeast Seattle studio, meticulously piecing together the wedges of plywood that form the gigantic horizontal disc. The piece is smeared with red resin; crusty where it is sanded down, glossy as strawberry jelly where it is not. The piece is not perfect, riddled with tiny accumulated mistakes that don’t self-correct, he says, but it’s the trial and error, the corrected, revised, fudged, improvised passages, that lend the sculpture its beauty, and its humanity. -From the catalog essay by Elizabeth Bryant

BRAMBLE, 2007 Alpolic Wall mounted 42 x 38 x 22 inches

BRAMBLE, 2007 (left) - SKETCHBOOK, 2007 (right)

INSTALLATION VIEW - LAWRIMORE project MAIN SPACE- June 2007

MUTTERHULSE, 2007 Alpolic 90 x 72 x 72 inches P.O.R.

Bruch’s work reads like a poem, the meanings unfolding the closer the work is read. The deliberation with which his objects are crafted slows the eye, deepens the reading. The objects are enigmatic and evocative, not exhausted in a single interpretation. Often, his work takes organic form—from shells to roots, to bramble branches and hulls of nuts—yet refers to concepts beyond specificity. The branching shapes of Bramble (2007) and Fox Ridge (2006) double as invasive species and subdivision; the shingled nutshell of Mutterhülsen (2007) serves also as an ancient helmet or a tiled Germanic rooftop. Department of Forensic Morphology Annex (2004), on the University of Washington campus (Seattle), which references the nearby Observatory and the Boeing Wind Tunnel Building, reads as a nautilus-shelled bunny. Its quilt-like, floating skin is cut away to expose the radiating, triangular-sectioned, jungle-gym within. --From the catalog essay by Elizabeth Bryant

PILGRIM, 2004 Paper, resin, ink 36 x 50 x 36 inches $18,000 “[Bruch's art] is a kind of ‘conceptual craft’ typified by Martin Puryear. Rife with biomorphic forms that allude to a larger conceptual framework, such work allows the artist to engage in the sensual business of making a thing well and making it guilt free” --Daniel Duford - Artweek, September, 2006

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT?, 2000 Wood, steel, epoxy [On Hold]

CLEAVE, 2006 Mahogany 118.5 x 21 x 19 inches P.O.R.

DON’T FEED IT, 1993 Steel, enamel 12 x 12 x 18 feet P.O.R. Installation View - LAWRIMORE project White Cube Photo: Richard Nichol “His work represents a distinct, recognizable aesthetic and remains consistently high quality – unity in diversity if you will. His art has always suggested to me a merging of the engineer and the poet, a sculpture characterized by structural ingenuity and resourcefulness while evoking the attributes and sensitivity of drawing”--Chris Schnoor, Artweek, June 2004

CHORTLES #1, #2, #3, 2001 Wood, coffee 28 x 14 x 14 inches each (roughly) $5,700 [#1, #3 SOLD; #2 (center) Available]

UNTITLED DRAWING #2, 2000 Ink on paper 28 x 19 inches $2,000 [SOLD, others available] Photo: Richard Nicol

HOW DID I GET HERE?, 2001 Garbage can lids, lights, text Various sizes P.O.R. Photo: Jim Frankoski

ATTENTION SHOPPERS, 1985 Steel over shopping cart 38 x 36 x 20 inches [On Hold] Attention Shoppers is a surviving example of Bruch’s midwestern work: the shopping cart as armored vehicle—a succinct visual link between habits of Western consumption and the military policies which sustain them.

93 PIECES, 1988 Hammered shopping cart Dimensions vary P.O.R.

STREET ACTIVITY, VEGETABLE CURRENCY, 1987 Photodocumentary N/A Photo: SAVAK “He’s an instinctive contrarian. Whether he’s working with the sculptural possibilities of shopping carts, the dead weight of metal briefcases, collapsing piles of wire belts, graphite street rubbings, rampways made of whisky bottles or pathways strewn with old clothes, he begins with the notion that there is no assumption about material form that is not open to challenge” Regina Hackett Seattle Post-Intelligencer July 17, 2000

ROLLER ROASTER, 1987 Shopping cart and found objects 39 x 60 x 36 inches P.O.R.

HONEY, 1997 Steel 14.5 x 16 x 3 inches [Sold]

BURDEN OF PROOF / INSTALLATION, 1991 Found wine bottles, found objects P.O.R.

BURDEN OF PROOF, 1990 Monoprint 34 x 80 inches $5,500

JAMES 3rd CHERRY 2nd, 1988 Graphite, crayon on paper (street rubbing) P.O.R.

STREET ACTIVITY, STREET RUBBING, 1989 Photodocumentary N.F.S. Photo: Drake Deknatel

*ADDITIONAL WORK NOT INCLUDED IN THE EXHIBITION and PUBLIC COMMISSIONS BELOW*

MURMUR, 2001 Redwood, mahogany 72 x 72 x 68 inches $34,000

CLARION, 2006 Wood, pigment, glue 44 x 35 x 21 inches $14,000 Photo: Richard Nicol

“Unlike many artists, he rejects the forced separation of aesthetic and political expression. Instead, Bruch locates political speculation and criticism alongside other expressions of human thought and feeling, including those more purely visual or aesthetic in nature. For Bruch, political expression is something an artist arrives at naturally, as a result of thinking about the world and the self” John S. Weber Art Between Objects and Actions, Pacific Northwest College of Art, 1989

DEPARTMENT OF FORENSIC MORPHOLOGY ANNEX, 2004 Stainless steel 28 feet x 9 feet 6 inches x 12 feet University of Washington Public Commission

DUTY CYCLE, 2000 Installation view - Suyama Space “It’s beautiful, certainly, especially the dizzying views through the wheel’s interior. The holes appear to multiply off into infinity, like the view at the corners of a clothing store’s triple-mirror array. The near-contradictions the wheel embodies – large and light, thick and hollow – make it a rather intense investigation of the commonplace of the medium of sculpture itself” --Eric Fredericksen - The Stranger July 6, 2000

DUTY CYCLE, 2000 Paper 17 foot diameter x 32 inches P.O.R. Installation view: Boise Art Museum Photo: Welsh Studios, Boise