What would it mean to be here now?

Born in 1970 in Somerset, Kentucky, self-taught artist Bruce New has spent decades developing a visual language that speaks to both the personal and the universal. Working from his home in rural Kentucky, New builds intricate cut-paper compositions mounted to wood panel. Simple shapes metamorphose into elemental landscapes where suns, moons, birds, mountains, and flowers gather at ceremony and become symbols of transcendence.

Many of the compositions are divided by horizons or anchored by a central axis, creating balance. Their mirrored nature exists between self and other, between reflection and relationship. Where do I end and you begin?

New’s imagery exists in a place where memory, dream, and observation dissolve into one experience. Their visual vocabulary hints at spiritual ritual without prescribing belief, and mythology without belonging to a branded tradition. They meditatively occupy a space between the earthly and the celestial, or both at once. Where does Earth end and Heaven begin?

Through hyper-vibrant color, stark contrast, and hypnotic symmetry, New’s works are reminders that equanimity comes from noticing. Amidst overwhelm, we are beckoned to the present.

As New writes of his own practice: “My work is an attempt to document my existence - to leave a visual record of my thoughts, ideas, and fantasies. I reside in the wilds of Kentucky, with a bird, on a mountaintop, right next to the sun, where I create my artwork high on butterfly wine.”