Gallery 1957 presents Love Story: Dancing Hearts a solo exhibition by figurative and portrait artist Nana Bruce following his recent residency with the Gallery in Accra. Love Story: Dancing Hearts is a heartfelt collection of paintings created in the acrylic medium, inspired by the poetic voice through which reality as an impulse is processed and shared by all whether they be conscious or unconscious of it.

Within this collection, Bruce shares stories in paintings as a way to define the spine of the society he finds himself in. Considering that the collection was birthed almost a decade ago through a piece of poetry which has now metamorphosed and been broken into various paintings; an act seeming of the allegory of Jesus breaking his body as bread with the disciples. Each painting is accompanied by a poem in calligraphy from.

This collection is an inquiry into what leads to disagreement or conflicts, while pursuing the joy of living as a shared experience in intimacy. Despite this pursuit, people are often plagued with a manner of waves that can sabotage the fulfilment they seek based on the influences of their environment, responses and class distinctions. Although these sides of ourselves are often concealed both in life and within gallery spaces, here, Bruce illuminates our shadows, pale bodies and the spaces they inhabit, and projects thoughts, emotions, onto the canvas so that we might enquire within ourselves to find meaning and resolution. Working in acrylic on canvas, Bruce has used a number of bristle brushes, ranging from very soft to hard, to create different textures in order to achieve his goal of expression. By that, he’s captured various moods for a kind of sensitivity enabling him to create drama to invite his audience into a space or world of inquiry in which the works can be engaged.

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