Robert Bruce and Keith Wood | A Duo Exhibition Celebrating Two Legendary Manitoba Artists

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Left: Robert Bruce, "#1037"; Right: Keith Wood, "Untitled #045," 2011

Left: watercolour and ink on paper, 19"x12.5" ; Right: Encaustic on Artboard 30" x 22". Courtesy of the Gallery

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 11, 6:30-9:30pm

Robert Bruce was born in Grandview, Manitoba and grew up in Winnipeg. He was a talented teacher, and award-winning war artist, and successful illustrator, as well as a muralist, printmaker and painter. As a young man, he attended the Winnipeg School of Art under LL. Fitzgerald. 

With the help of a bursary, he travelled to Europe, studying at the Central School of Art in London and the Académie Grande Chaumière in France. Like other artists of his generation, he wished to help in the war effort and enlisted in the Canadian Military. He distinguished himself as a public relations staff artist, participating in a prestigious war art exhibition which opened at the National Gallery of Canada. In 1946, while still in the military, he participated in ‘Exercise Muskox’ which trekked over three thousand miles across the top of Canada, using Churchill as a departure point. Bruce Recorded the human effort in involved in the expedition, inspiration for many great paintings. 

Following his discharge from the army, he moved to New York, to work and study at the Art Student’s League. There he met, fellow student, George Swinton, with whom he would later teach at the University of Manitoba School of Art. While in New York, his illustrations were published in leading publications, such as Life, the New York Times, Harpers and McLean’s. Bruce was a skier, swimmer, canoeist and sailor, and this physicality was demonstrated in the dynamic composition and colours of his canvases. After his retirement from the University of Manitoba, in 1976, he divided his time between Falcon Lake and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, which had a small but active artists’ enclave. He died there in 1980.

Keith Wood was born in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia and spent his early years in Dartmouth and Halifax. He started drawing in early childhood when illness often prevented him from going to school and a pencil and paper became his refuge. He was a graduate of The Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, where he was the recipient of the Donald C. McKay Award and subsequently a sessional instructor. He also studied Design Management at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. 

After exploring the width, breadth and depth of acrylic for more than 30 years, in 2006 Wood started using the “encaustic” medium (pigmented molten wax.). Encaustic is light - a key element of Wood’s work. Working with wax enabled him to achieve textures and sensibilities not possible with oil or acrylic paint. Wood worked in the abstract genre. His non- representational images evoke space and light, rhythm and depth. Every painting has an intent which one must sense then act on. Just as a jazz musician dialogues with his instrument, Wood’s art involved an intense dialogue throughout the creative process.