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AIDS forms the core of my being and therefore the core source of much of my work. Much of my imagery alludes to a physical “safety net” that my doctor once warned me could only take so much of a beating before it failed and led to a cascading fall in health. With each cut I make in my work, I attempt to reconstruct the destruction of the body -- seeking the failure point of the material -- following with reinforcement to shore up and reconstitute the self. The resulting end is an embodied labyrinth of the myriad paths that anyone with a disease must follow to achieve a form of stasis within their own bodies and in the world.
Bruce Monroe was born in Roswell, New Mexico and grew up in Texas, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from Texas A&M University. After retiring from a twenty-year career as a fundraiser due to AIDS, Bruce received his MFA in Studio Art from the University of South Florida. His work is inspired from printmaking, though the end result is often realized in photographic or sculptural media. As a current member of the 500X Gallery in Dallas, Bruce has been in several exhibitions. In 2011, he exhibited in SHIFT, organized by VSA International Organization on Arts and Disability and held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Bruce was awarded the “Best in Show” at the 34th Annual Student Art and Art History Exhibition at the Centre Gallery in Tampa and has shown, internationally, at CIRCA10 Puerto Rico as part of a group collaborative, “Angus Negro.” His solo show, “I Thought You Were Dead,” was seen at the William and Nancy Oliver Gallery in Tampa. His works are included in the permanent collection of the Brookhaven College School of the Arts in Dallas and in the private collections of Dallas and Tampa residents. He also has works on loan to the University of South Florida College of Engineering.
