Bruns, Nelson. OTHER WORK. These pieces are included in the Nelson Bruns exhibition at Waynflete School. They are owned by the members of the artist's family, friends, or collectors and are not available for sale. A show of work by Alumni of Waynflete School (360 Spring St, Portland ME) includes metal sculptures and related pieces by Nelson Bruns, a graduate of its class of 2004. Now studying engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, Mr. Bruns work will surprise and delight the viewer with its inventiveness, humor, intelligence and craft. The works on display demonstrate the artist's technical proficiency with metals, his ability to combine found objects to make built collages, and his abiltiy to make art objects which rely on the scientific principles of magnetism and electricity. The overarching theme of the show is Bruns' intertwining of engineering principals with an aesthetic sensibility to create art. His work explores the mysteries of magnetism, gravity and sound waves, for example, allowing the viewer a sense of adventure and discovery. It is an invitation to stand along with the artist and wonder in a most engaging way, how do these invisible forces work? The show is a refreshing celebration of the physical world, and the forces that shape it. Although the written statement which Bruns presented for the exhibition provides predictable answers to the usual questions asked of artists, in direct conversation he demonstrates great intellectual curiosity and a candid willingness to respond that he doesn't always know the answer. It is through that portal of exploration that we can see glimpses of an art that lets us see the world differently. That is where the show takes on energy. Some of the implications of the work are political, like the assemblage of bullets and money, over which is played the recording of a tedious Congressional debate . Some of the work has more the feel of a science experiment, like the feather paintings of sound waves. Other works are abstract compositions of interpenetrating forms in space made of metals. All are provocative visualizations of real ideas. If this work is a harbinger of things to come, pay attention now. We are seeing the formulating stages of a nova.
