housescanfly.com
b. 1947, American
Lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Bruce Nygren is a Twin Cities-based painter and printmaker who brings the fantastical to his subject matter. In a solo exhibition catalog essayist Jon Zurn states that at a glance viewers often call Nygren’s work Surrealist, but Bruce prefers the word fantasy. While Surrealism has been preoccupied to paint a presumptuous landscape of the imagination, an arguably limited venture that tends to dead-end in societal angst and threadbare allegory, Nygren has, not surprisingly flipped the equation, plunking the imagination happily in the middle of the landscape.

Bruce Nygren says he juxtaposes unlikely elements and makes them seem natural. but in a dream-like way, creating a bit of mystery, too. Frequent subjects are old children’s toys.

Bruce Nygren has a strong exhibition record and dedicated collectors.