About this new body of work, Bruggeman writes: “The serenity of a forsaken school bus or a vacant farm is animated upon this sliver of skyline, reminding us of the promise and threat that has always told the story of North America. My goal is to paint the not-so-emptiness of the plains; earth and sky, separated at the edge of visibility. Compressed and squeezed along this edge, these scenes are a reminder of the powerful and defining forces that envelop and eventually erase all things. Some call that edge sublime, but in these paintings, I want there to be little doubt that the events and places depicted are ephemeral and likely to disperse and vanish.” 

He continues, “The Midwest remains both alluring and bleak to the outsider, and it requires, maybe, a little more imagination to see the unremarkable as uncanny, precarious and ephemeral.”

Bruggeman currently teaches in the Fine Art Department at Carleton College in Northfield. For over 30 years his work has been part of exhibitions across the U.S. including the Albright Knox Museum in Buffalo, the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks, the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearny, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul.

The artist will be present at the opening reception Saturday, September 8^th from 2-5 pm. The opening reception and exhibition runs concurrently with Slow Blue by Dan O’Kane. Both shows continue through October 13, 2018.