Izzy Bruna
I was born on March 27th, 2000, in Santiago de Chile, Chile. I’m nationalised Chilean and Spanish, as I spent my childhood in Barcelona and my teenage years in Santiago.
For the past 6 years I’ve been residing in Bremen, Germany and studying Fine Arts at the University of the Arts in Bremen, since 2019, under professor Katrin von Maltzahn’s painting and drawing class. On the side I’ve been balancing my tattoo artist apprenticeship, the assistance in my class and weekend shifts at the Galerie Mitte.
Where I come from, depictions of Christ in his last hours, of martyred Saints and the power of God over us represented in famines, plagues, floodings and disease are found in every piece of artwork in schools, local churches and homes.
Growing up in the early 2000s surrounded by this, has shaped my perspective on the meaning of life and stimulated a sensitivity within myself to find the beauty in the bizarre.
My work explores alternate worlds in which my characters or entities carry a slightly similar, but parallel existence to the one we do. Worlds such as the afterlife, outer space, the subconscious and the past, with various elements characteristics to the goth subculture.
Starting with the subconscious back in 2019 and following a long dive into the world of the afterlife and memento mori concepts employing different mediums (oil painting, pencil drawing, grisaille on glass and etching printmaking throughout 2020 and 2023), last year saw science fiction, its retro futuristic aesthetics and symbolism added to the artistic practice.
The creation of my first artist book also took place in late 2023, which displays the topic of childhood and the past, mainly using the etching printmaking technic.
Fast forward to 2024 and after 19 exhibitions, which five of them are outside the institution’s management, the focus of my art practice is still to continue to explore these worlds. The main goal is not to cause shock value, rather to glimpse into the impermanence of life from a different perspective.
FEATURED IMAGE
La Posada de los Muertos: Fermented, 2022
Photo: Izzy Bruna, 2022