Nicolas Bruno’s photographs and drawings mix surrealism and unsettling, solitary drama. In his first solo show with Haven Gallery in Northport, New York, the artist offers 17 new works that the gallery says are “transmuted from Bruno’s dreams as a means of coping and controlling his sleep paralysis affliction.” The show kicks off on February 25 and runs through April 2.
“Growing up in a waterside town, Bruno’s images are influenced by memories of spending time by the sea, in the marshlands and amidst sprawling fields,” the gallery says. “His Italian heritage inspires his choice in titles while his admiration of art history plants subliminal seeds of artist tributes throughout his imagery. Nostalgia thinly laces his visions and imagery as darker embodiments of entrapment, being chased and secrecy bespeak a more prevailing role.”
The artist has reportedly suffered from sleep paralysis for a decade. The condition is marked by the body becoming immobile, as it straddles and being awake and being asleep. In this state, many hallucinate and experience otherworldly imagery. The artist sees these works as a way of relating and dealing with this. The show’s is broken down in nine photographs, five “embellished works,” and three drawings.
For most of us growing up, playgrounds were more than a place for fun and games- they also provided a fast and hard lesson in how social structure works; they taught us how to be patience while we waited for our turn on the swing, while boys would chase and torment the new girl, and the nerdy kid would get bullied and left behind in sport games. In their surreal new series of photographs titled 
Dutch artist 
Italy-born painter 
German artist