RISD : Rhode Island School of Design : PROFILES




DONNA BRUTON risd connection: Professor of Painting; at RISD since 1993 about her work: Through large, multi-layered collages inhabited by real, imagined and remembered objects, Bruton examines the line between the real and the unreal. The decorative effects in her otherwise transcendent canvases in acrylic and tissue paper may reflect her background in graphic design or the four years spent at Chrysler Corporation in the early 1980s as a color and fabric stylist. the road to risd: Motivated by an interest in the spiritual in art, Bruton eventually left the design world for painting. She began her teaching career as an assistant professor at the University of Texas in Austin, after completing her MFA at Yale University in 1991. She ended up at RISD in 1993 after following up on a contact made at a College Art Association conference — with the late RISD provost, Hardu Keck MFA ’64 PT. After teaching here for several years, went on to serve as Painting Department head from 2001�03 before assuming her current position as interim dean of Graduate Studies. selected solo shows 2004 Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY 2003 Stonehill College, Easton MA 2002 Installation, Mall at Chesnut Hill, Brookline, MA 2001 Luckas Gallery, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT 1998 University Art Gallery Atrium, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, MA 1998 List Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI 1996 Wheeler Gallery, Providence, RI 1993 Women and Their Work Gallery, Austin, TX 1984 Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit, MI 1984 CADE Gallery, Detroit, MI 1982 Detroit Council for the Arts, Detroit, MI selected group exhibitions 2002 25th Anniversary Benefit Selections Exhibition, The Drawing Center, New York, NY 2002 Gwangju Biennale: Art to Wear, Gwangju, Korea 2001 OBJECTS, RISD Museum of Art, Providence, RI 2000 Rhode Island College, Providence, RI 2000 Acacia Gallery, Gloucester, MA 2000 Stamford Art Center, Stamford, CT 1999 Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, RI 1998 Part of the Fabric, RISD Museum of Art, Providence, RI 1998 Rhode Island School of Design Museum, African American Collection, Providence RI 1997 Swell Galerie, Pont Aven, France 1995 Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Milwaukee, WI 1995 Guadalupe Cultural Art Center, San Antonio, TX 1994 The Drawing Center, New York, NY 1994 Coker Bell Gallery, Hartsville, SC 1994 Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin, TX 1994 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI 1994 Women and Their Work Gallery, Austin, TX 1993 Lynne Goode Gallery, Houston, TX 1993 Martin-Rathburn Gallery, San Antonio, TX 1992 New Works Invitational, Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin, TX 1992 Gallery OH, Ichinomiya, Japan 1991 Connecticut Women Artists, John Slade Ely House, New Haven, CT 1990 Yale Afro-American Cultural Center, New Haven, CT education Yale University School of Art, MFA in Painting/Printmaking, 1991 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Certificate in Painting, 1988 Michigan State University, BFA in Graphic Design, 1976