Bruce Rimell

Bruce Rimell is a visionary and archetypal artist based in Leeds-Bradford in the UK whose vibrant work springs from the alchemy of his own personal visions, sensations of archaeological or mythological prehistories, and migraine experiences since childhood. Rendered in a vivid style which as much recalls Aboriginal textures, Mayan codices and Minoan frescoes as it does graffiti art, psychedelic experience and surrealist forms, his art occupies a space somewhere between painting, drawing and illustration, and a time somewhere between the ancestral past and the shamanic future.

The central focus of his practice is to bring those very ancient archetypes – whether Palaeolithic, Neolithic or sometimes the High Civilisations of the Bronze Age – into the modern field of experience, variously inviting or challenging the viewer to look underneath the contextual aspects of contemporary art and modern experience to view the universalities and disquieting visionary sensations common to all human cultures past and present, and which we have inherited from our ancestors.

He aims to speak to those aspects of us which operate without words – dreams, magic, psychedelic experiences, animistic songlines and other non-rational modes of experience feature strongly – whilst abstract commentaries and critical positions are abandoned in a quest to seek and express direct communion with the deepest essences of the living and sacred human being: Come and see, and look within. What will you find?

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & PROJECTS

• Ammon Ra Gallery, Monterrey, Mexico – Two artworks in ‘Dreams & Divinites Mexico’ touring show
• Bash Contemporary, San Francisco, USA – Two artworks and book launch in new travelling show
• Ex-Convento de San Domingo, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico – Inclusion of two artworks in ‘Dreams & Divinities’ travelling show
• Marienplatz, Witten, Germany Exhibition of artworks in group show ‘Seis’
• Blue Door Gallery, Yonkers, NY, USA Participation in exhibition ‘Visionaries: Seers of the Soul’
  Chiméria Festival, Sedan, France Exhibition of new artworks in this International Visionary Art Show
• ArtManila Art Fair, Manila, Philippines Artwork featuring in ‘Endangered Visions’ exhibit
• Centro San Marcos, Toledo, Spain Inclusion of Persephone in ‘Dreams & Divinities’ travelling show
• Sala de Arte, Maracena, Granada, Spain Second venue of ‘Dreams & Divinities’ travelling show
• Globally and online Launch of my Voice Project
• Atelier Porte-Soleil, Paris, France Inclusion of Persephone in ‘Art Visionnaire Contemporain’ show
• Guerilla Zoo, Apiary Studios, London Inclusion of Xibalba Song in ‘Modern Panic IV’ exhibition
• Cartwright Hall, Bradford, UK Solo retrospective – DNA Visions
• Phantasten Museum, Vienna, Austria One work from my Minoan Honey project as part of group show
• Skylight Gallery, New York City, USA Selection of works in group show
• Cosmo Festival, Taunton, UK Live Art & Painting at Elixir of Life project
• Glade Festival, Norfolk, UK Live Art & Painting at Elixir of Life project
• Cupola Gallery, Sheffield Two works in summer show ‘Urban’ and winter show ‘Revelations’
• Design Innovation Centre, Leeds, UK Solo show – Dreams & Nightmares exhibition
• Union 105 Gallery, Leeds, UK Touring Venue of Dialogue Among Civilisations exhibition
  Marienplatz, Witten, Germany Solo show – Minoan Honey & Other Stories
• University of Malta, Msida, Malta Continuation of Mirca Tour for Human Rights exhibition

AWARDS, RECOGNITIONS & PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

• ArtsMix* Emerging Artists Award, Leeds, UK Winner of Fine Art 2D Practitioner Award
• Private Collection, Cologne, Germany Multi-panel dual image (Light/UV) work Gaia
• Tiger 11, Hillside, Leeds, UK Large scale commission for Entrance Hall
• Durban Art Gallery & Municipal Collection, South Africa Artwork Blombos: We Are All South African
• Flesh Open Exhibition, YCC, Bradford, UK Co-winner of Merit Award with …Flesh Alone
• Negev Jeep Karkom Tours, Mitzpe Ramon, Israel Negev Rock Art series in permanent collection
• Further work in private collections across Germany, Israel, the USA and the UK

MEMBERSHIPS

• Dreams & Divinities International visionary art initiative and artists network
• Visionary Artists Group International network of artists working in the visionary and surreal
  Society For Art Of Imagination International group aiming to publicise visionary and surreal art
• Mirca Art Group Internet-based international art group pressing for global justice
• The Art House Yorkshire-based national organisation supporting artists UK-wide

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