Zach Bruder’s metaphorical approach to painting and long-term interest in image collecting results in inventive compositions in which both pictorial and illusionistic space play a role. Often humorous and allegorical, his paintings involve animals, architecture, and anthropomorphism. His canvases revive and repurpose familiar motifs, referencing folklore while finding new metaphors in simple objects and creatures. The source material—archetypal and drawing from classical and vernacular mythology—is culled from the artist’s extensive archive of historic imagery. Addressing mythologies both cultural and personal, Bruder’s paintings offer multiple interpretations of religious and social narratives and urgent responses to the societal and political moment in which they were produced. Valentina Di Liscia writes, “Faced with one of Bruder’s canvases, the viewer takes an active role, deciphering the intertextuality between the multiple literary, historical, and folkloric references he often cites simultaneously.”

Zach Bruder received his BFA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, WI. Bruder presented his first solo show at Magenta Plains in January 2018 in New York, NY followed by Gone to Fair in 2020, and Clear Arrears in 2023. Solo exhibitions have also been held at Harlan Levey, Brussels, BE; galerie l’inlassable, Paris, FR; Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco, CA; and LaMaMa Galleria, New York, NY. Bruder has been included in group shows at Peter Freeman, New York, NY; Ratio 3, San Francisco, CA; The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Phillip Slein Gallery, St. Louis, MO; and Magenta Plains, New York, NY. The artist lives and works in New York, NY.

Born 1984, Cleveland, OH
Lives and works in New York, NY

Education

2006

BFA, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI

Solo Exhibitions

2023

Clear Arrears, Magenta Plains, New York, NY

2022

Greeter, Harlan Levey, Brussels, BE

2020

Gone to Fair, Magenta Plains, New York, NY

2018

Edening On, Magenta Plains, New York, NY

2017

Hardscrabbled, Harlan Levey, Brussels, BE

2016

Monument Around, galerie l'inlassable, Paris, FR
Plant in Repair, Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Unwelcome Guest, La MaMa Galleria, New York, NY

Group Exhibitions

2024

Felix Art Fair with Magenta Plains, Los Angeles, CA

2022

What A Long Strange Trip, Analog Diary, Hudson, NY
Leave a Light On, The Valley, Taos, NM

2021

Friends & Family, Magenta Plains, New York, NY
Was/It/Ought, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL

2019

Downtown Painting, curated by Alex Katz, Peter Freeman, New York, NY

2018

Dallas Art Fair, Magenta Plains, Dallas, TX
NADA Miami Art Fair, Magenta Plains, Miami, FL
Upstairs Art Fair, Magenta Plains, Amagansett, NY
Still Lives, Underdonk, Brooklyn, NY
People, Places, Things…, Phillip Slein, St. Louis, MO

2017

Tennis Elbow, The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Code Art Fair (with Monteverita), Copenhagen, DK
Landscape Modern Oil Painting Canvas Painting Abstract Oil Painting Wall Hanging, curated by Jir Sandel, Galleri Benoni, Copenhagen, DK
The Present Tense: Zach Bruder & Louise Bourgeois, Ratio 3, San Francisco, CA
The Present Tense: Ben Peterson & Zach Bruder, Ratio 3, San Francisco, CA

2016

Boundary Issues, Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Record Lines This Summer, curated by Ellie Rines, Magenta Plains, NY
Tropicàlia, galerie l'inlassable, Paris, FR

2015

We agreed the paler tones would make a more subtle statement, curated by Dmitry Komis, Ida Schmid, Brooklyn, NY
Salon Society Edition 2 curated by Fabiola Alondra, Salon Society, Brooklyn, NY
Drift and Pop, curated by Olivia Smith, Orgy Park, Brooklyn, NY
There is No Fact of the Matter as to Whether or Not P, 247365, New York, NY
Object of Magic, curated by Eneas Capalbo, Moiety, Brooklyn, NY

2013

Patterns of Interference, Showroom Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY

2012

Greasy Pink, French Neon, New York NY