Bruno David is pleased to present Paper made and unmade, an exhibition of works on paper by Buzz Spector. This exhibit will be his fifth solo exhibition with the gallery. His long history of working with paper is the subject of Buzz Spector: Alterations, curated by Gretchen L. Wagner, and Elizabeth Wyckoff, at the Saint Louis Art Museum (Nov 20, 2020- May 31, 2021). A virtual talk "On Edge: what constitutes drawing in the art of Buzz Spector" at SLAM is scheduled at noon on Thursday, February 18, 2021. In conjunction with Spector’s exhibition, Bruno David Gallery will publish a catalogue of the artist’s work with an indepth exhibition history and bibliography. This new exhibit at Bruno David Gallery, brings together recent works of handmade paper Spector produced at three studios over the past three years: Megan Singleton in St. Louis, Helen Frederick in Silver Springs, MD, and Joan Hall in Jamestown RI. These works have not previously been exhibited.

Buzz Spector is an artist and critical writer whose artwork has been shown in such museums as the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Saint Louis Art Museum, the Luigi Pecci Centre, Prato, Italy, and the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA. He has published a number of artists' books and editions since the mid-1970s, including Buzzwords, selected interviews with Spector and new page art, issued by Sara Ranchouse Publishing, Chicago, in 2012. Other Spector publications include White Insistence, a limited edition collaboration with poet Michael Burkhart, self-published by the artist in 2009, and Time Square, a 2007 limited edition letterpress book hand altered by the artist, published by Pyracantha Press at Arizona State University.

Spector was a co-founder of WhiteWalls, a magazine of writings by artists, in Chicago in 1978, and served as the publication's editor until 1987. Since then, he has written extensively on topics in contemporary art and culture, and has contributed reviews and essays to a number of publications, including American Craft, Artforum, Art Issues, Art on Paper, Exposure, and New Art Examiner. Spector is the author of numerous exhibition catalogue essays including, most recently, “Body of Drawing,” a reflection on drawing in the art of Monika Weiss, for the catalog to Weiss’s upcoming 2021 exhibit, Nirbhaya, at the Center of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko, Poland. Other recent essays include “Dan Ramirez: Music of Spheres,” published in the artist’s 2017 retrospective exhibit at the Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI, and Luis Camnitzer: Forewords and Last Words (Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 2011).

Spector received his M.F.A. from the University of Chicago in 1978, combining studies in art and philosophy, and studied design and art at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where he received his B.A. in 1972. He received the Distinguished Teaching of Art Award from the College Art Association in 2013. Other recognition includes a 2005 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA Fellowship), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship in 1991, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Awards in 1982, 1985, and 1991. He is emeritus professor of art in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.