Cris Bruch earned a BFA in ceramics/sculpture at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. Following completion of an MFA and MA at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Bruch moved to Seattle in 1986.

In 1989, he received the Northwest Major Works Award from the Seattle Arts Commission. In 1990, Bruch received the Betty Bowen Memorial Award, created a permanent entry sculpture for the Port Angeles Fine Art Center and was selected for residencies at the Ateliers Hoherweg, Dusseldorf, Germany; Djerassi Foundation, Woodside, CA; and Centrum Foundation, Port Townsend, WA. In 2001, he received a Neddy Fellowship from the Behnke Foundation in Seattle. A comprehensive survey of his work was presented by the Salt Lake Art Center, Salt Lake City, UT in 2003, portions of which then traveled to the Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID in 2004. Bruch’s career has included several public commissions. He has created iconic large-scale sculptures for the University of Washington, Seattle; the Wayne Lyman Morse United States Courthouse in Eugene, OR; 5th Avenue Transit Corridor, Portland, OR; and Brightwater Environmental Education and Community Center, Woodenville, WA, among others. Bruch has received an Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Artist Fellowship (2006), a Pollock-Krasner Foundation award (2007), an Artist Trust GAP grant (2006 and 2012), 4Culture Individual Artist Project Grant (2011) and a Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs CityArtist Project Grant (2012). In 2016, Bruch had a solo exhibition, Others Who Were Here, at Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA.

The artist lives and works on Vashon Island.

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Vanguard Seattle

Requiem for the Heartland: Cris Bruch's Others Who Were Here
by T.S. Flock
March 25, 2016

The Seattle Times

Eerie and elegiac ghost town: Cris Bruch's brooding sculpture about Dust Bowl disappointment
by Michael Upchurch
February 23, 2016