B.

Kees Bruin was born in Roxburgh, Central Otago, in 1954. He studied sculpture and later painting at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts from 1974, graduating with honours. His teachers included such leading Canterbury artists as William A. Sutton, Rudolf Gopas, Ted Bracey and Doris Lusk. In 1979 Bruin attended Christchurch College of Education (Secondary Division) and in 1998 enrolled in a film production training programme. He holds a Diploma in Teaching and certificate in Film production. Bruin has worked as a professional artist for almost three decades and has participated in both solo and group exhibitions throughout New Zealand and internationally.

Kees Bruin's paintings have the sharp focus and blemish-free surfaces of a colour photograph. Working in a photo realist style, or 'visionary super-realist' as he prefers to call it, Bruin uses a camera and colour photographs as a starting point for preparing his imagery. He reinterprets these images, often combining them with memories and studies from life. Each work is a carefully organised composite imbued with symbolism – a construct of ideas, figures and images of the artists own invention.