Bruce Wilhelm
Bruce Wilhelm wasn’t born a painter, but almost. From the time he got his first set of paints as a teenager, painting has been at the center of his life. It’s how he works out thoughts and feelings. As a very shy young man, it was a way for him to put himself out there without words, and it is still a very intuitive process for him. In a new body of work, Bruce has wholeheartedly embraced abstraction. In his previous work, he often used figures to anchor work that explored many of the same themes seen in these new paintings - layering, construction, destruction, and reconstruction, color, and form. Now he has set the figure aside in an exploration of pure abstraction in large scale work that has an engaging presence and energy.
“For me, painting is never work. That’s my favorite thing to do. I really enjoy the time being by myself working on something and being able to focus on these tasks. Even though the work might be tedious, I’m excited about what I might find. I’m always very optimistic and that’s why I’m always disappointed when I unwrapped it. But months later, I might think, okay, this is a good one. Internalizing the paintings takes a few months for me.”
Paige hosts the LookSEE podcast and is a freelance audio producer, an art lover, and a lifelong Richmonder. Her favorite place to be is in a museum. A close second is a bookstore.
