Jerry Pruce

Born 1944, St.Louis, Missouri.

I currently live in the coastal mountains of Northern CA
where I have my home. studio and workshop.



THE WORK...


In the early sixties, I discovered the book “The Eternal Present” by S. Gideon an anthropologist who traveled the world studying the images and artifacts of early cave dwellers. In his studies one common image was found….the human hand. These hand images were created by tracing around the hand and filling in or creating a stencil by placing the hand on a surface and blowing paint over it. Whatever these hand drawings represented, evoked a deep vibration and connection in me.

The metaphysical nature of these primordial mystical images started a journey that goes to the core of the work. They represent a rite of passage from what I deeply loved as a child and couldn’t explain to what I still love as an adult and still can’t explain. Abstraction is the visual language I have chosen to record this journey.

Abstraction is a source of deeper meaning. It is a source of knowledge and truth. Knowledge and truth have a dual nature of being both concepts fabricated by the mind and words that act as signposts to an understanding that goes beyond the limitations of the mind.

The intellect is...

BFA Washington University School of Fine Arts 1972
MFA Washington University School of Fine Arts 1974

1969 Joe Hellman Gallery, St.Louis, MO

1969 Marcus Gallery, Boston, MA

1970 St.Louis Exhibition Center Gallery, St.Louis, MO

1972 Steinberg Gallery, St.Louis, MO

1973 The White Room Gallery, St.Louis, MO

1974 Steinberg Gallery St.Louis, MO

1974 Winifred Moore Gallery, Webster Groves, MO

1975 Winifred Moore Gallery, Webster Groves, MO

1989 "Art St.Louis" Forum Gallery, St.Louis, MO

1992 The Oasis Gallery, St.Louis, MO

1996 The Mateel Gallery, Garberville, CA

1997 The Mateel Gallery, Garberville, CA

1998 The Mateel Gallery, Garberville, CA

2012 The Mateel Gallery, Garberville, CA

2012 O'Hanlon Center of the Arts (juried) Mill Valley, CA

2013 O'Hanlon Center of the Arts (juried) Mill Valley, CA

2014 Vermont Studio Center Residency (selected)

2015 One person show at the Ohanlon Center of the Arts, Mill Valley, CA

2023 Artist grant from the Adolph Gottlieb Foundation

2024 Retrospective show of my artwork at the Morris Grave Museum of Fine Arts, Eureka, CA