Biography

J. Jordan Bruns is a full-time artist living and working in Maryland and serves as the resident artist in the historic Chautauqua (Stone) Tower at Glen Echo Park since 2008. From 2018 to 2021, he lived and worked in Tokyo, Japan, where his exposure to Japanese aesthetics and urban culture profoundly influenced his layered, process-driven approach to painting.

In 2004, Bruns earned BFAs in Painting and Illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art and went on to complete an MFA in Studio Painting at Indiana University in 2007. After graduate school, he returned to the Washington, D.C. area to manage and teach at the Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery at Glen Echo Park.

In 2022, he founded The Art Clinic, a dynamic painting and drawing school based in his Tower studio that merges rigorous technical study with creative experimentation. That same year, he co-founded The Art Clinic Online (ACO), a free, biweekly artist talk series that spotlights the extraordinary talent of artists throughout the DMV region. Through both initiatives, Bruns continues to build artistic community—offering education, mentorship, and exhibition opportunities for artists at all levels.

Bruns’s work, which bridges abstraction and representation through complex layering of acrylic, enamel, spray paint, shellac, and oil, explores themes of personal resilience and transformation. His paintings are held in the public collections of The World Bank, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and Kaiser Permanente.

He has presented solo exhibitions at Long View Gallery (Washington, D.C.) and The Indiana University Art Museum (Bloomington, Indiana). His numerous group exhibitions include Transient Geometries at The Antelope Valley College Art Gallery (Lancaster, California) and Color Schooled at Long View Gallery (Washington, D.C.). His work has also been featured in Scope Miami (2014), Aqua Miami (2019), and Context Miami (2017, 2018, 2023) during Art Basel.

Download Jordan’s Resume – PDF

Artist Statement

My work is about balance: how opposite or contrary forces complement each other and become awe-inspiring and beautiful.  At times, these forces remain independent of one another but more frequently they become intertwined, indistinguishable, and connected.  For me, this balance begins in the creation process by layering non-controllable paint applications like pouring and dripping with more controllable techniques such as using hand cut stencils or classical oil applications.  Balance is also mirrored in the mediums used to create my paintings.  Shellac, polyurethane, and spray paint create chaos; while acrylic, ink, and oil paint create order.  As the painting creation progresses and a dialog between the painting and myself is established, I coax (but not dictate) the imagery to communicate dualities of triumph vs. tragedy, light vs. darkness, and most importantly order vs. chaos.

Selected Solo Shows
2023 – Playing with Reality, Pop Corn Gallery, Glen Echo, Maryland

2022 – Tadaima, Artist and Makers, Rockville, Maryland

2018 Arigato – 10 Years Immersed in a Stone Tower, Pop Corn Gallery, Glen Echo, Maryland

2017 Unveiling the Magicians Secrets, Stone Tower Gallery, Glen Echo, Maryland

2017 Unfinished, Artist and Makers I, Rockville, Maryland

2015 Traditionally, Non Traditional, Pop Corn Gallery, Glen Echo, Maryland

2014 Light, Color, Chaos!,Long View Gallery, Washington, DC

2013 Color Chronicles,Pop Corn Gallery, Glen Echo, Maryland

2011 Chaos Matters, Margaret W. and Joseph L. Fisher Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia

2009 Moving Stone, The Work of J. Jordan Bruns, Popcorn Gallery, Glen Echo, Maryland

2008- Landscapes, NIH Gallery, Bethesda, Maryland

2007- Fallen Empires, Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, Indiana