September 27 - October 31, 2025
THE LIFE, WORK AND LEGACY OF BRUCE DAY
Retrospective Show & Sale
Curators: Chris Gregson and Keren Prichett
Bruce Day (1951 - 2019) was a native of Southern California. He graduated from California State University Long Beach in 1976 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drawing and painting.
A move to Washington DC introduced him to the art scene there. He was represented by Gallery K and was employed over the years at the Corcoran Gallery, the National Gallery of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum.
In 1996 with his family—wife Keren, daughter Amelia and son Henry—he arrived in Fredericksburg. Bruce continued his art and found studio space downtown. Once he retired from the Hirshhorn, he made his painting business full time. Locally, Bruce attended a weekly model-draw group, and models he met in those sessions continued to collaborate with him at his studio. He also attended modeling sessions in Richmond and the Washington DC area. Drawing and painting the human form became his artistic challenge the last years of his life.
Day exhibited in galleries in California and Washington DC and represented himself since 1982 until 2019. His work can be found in collections around the country and abroad. Working exclusively from life, Day’s work conveyed an intimacy with the subject lost in much of today’s photography-derived painting.
His later years found him taking on the challenge of painting and drawing the human figure. The subject matter was perhaps not as marketable as his previous realism subjects, but the challenge to reflect on color palettes, models and artistic trends were what stimulated his thoughts.
Bruce started his Figure blog in 2013, which allowed him to discuss his thoughts on colors, models and artistic trends. He continued posting his blogs until three days before his death.
Our family is grateful for the support of the community to Bruce over the years. We thank the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts for allowing us to share Bruce’s work in public once more.
