Long fascinated by the human figure, Bruce Gagnier is a largely self -taught artist. His clay sculptures, which from the beginning have been both the form and content of his work, draw on his memories of the sculptural figures and Renaissance drawings in many museums here in the U.S. and abroad, as well as from his experiences working from the live model. The life-size figures he makes today are inspired by those memories and guided by his imagination.
Gagnier (born 1941, Williamstown, MA) studied art history at Williams College (1959-63) and went on to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1963) and Columbia University (1963-67), where he studied with Nicholas Carone, Peter Agostini and John Heliker. Most recently, he was the recipient of the Arts and Letters Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2014). In the spring of 2016, Gagnier received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
He is the recipient of the Ingram Merril Award (1993) and the New Jersey State Council Award (1985). Gagnier’s teaching career includes positions at Yale University, Sarah Lawrence, Parsons, Haverford College and the International School of Art in Umbria, Italy. Between 1979 - 2016, he taught drawing and sculpture at the New York Studio School and currently works at the New York Academy of Figurative Art as a Visiting Critic and teaches the Master Class in Figure Modeling. Gagnier lives and works in Brooklyn.
