Chicago-based fine art painter Bruno A. Surdo creates provocative works centered around the human condition. Classically trained in drawing and oil painting in the tradition of Renaissance masters, Surdo displays a strong command of the human form and explores the depths of humanity through his dynamic compositions of people and places. With a focus on figurative realism and portraiture, he communicates a personal commentary on the world around him through the universal language of visual art. A native to Chicago, Bruno Surdo has exhibited widely throughout the United States and his work is held in prestigious art collections around the world. Founder of The School of Representational Art in Chicago, IL, Surdo is a lecturer and educator who believes in nurturing others.
The Bustling of Time, Oil on Canvas Painting, Old Masters Style, 2026
By Bruno Surdo
Located in Chicago, IL
The Bustling of Time captures one of Bruno Surdo’s recurring strengths: his ability to turn an ordinary public moment into something quietly theatrical and emotionally resonant. At t...
Canvas, Oil
$25,000
The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs - Monumental Mythological Oil Painting
By Bruno Surdo
Located in Chicago, IL
The battle depicted here takes place between the Lapiths and the Centaurs at the wedding In this mythological battle between Lapiths and Centaurs, Surdo directly engages the lineage ...
Canvas, Oil
The Canine of Florence, Oil on Canvas, Old Masters Style, 2026
By Bruno Surdo
Located in Chicago, IL
The Canine of Florence is a deceptively simple painting that reveals a great deal about Bruno Surdo’s sensibility. At its center is a small white dog crossing a sunlit cloister, but ...
Canvas, Oil
$15,000
Nature's Web of Dependency - Large Scale Oil Painting with Animals and People
By Bruno Surdo
Located in Chicago, IL
This painting exemplifies Bruno Surdo’s synthesis of Renaissance figuration, Northern allegory, and psychological symbolism. Female figures twist and overlap beneath a lattice of tree branches, while animals—a lamb, fox, squirrel, hummingbird—inhabit the same compressed pictorial space. The interlocking limbs and diagonals recall High Renaissance and Mannerist strategies of sculptural composition, and Surdo’s atelier training is evident in the anatomical precision and volumetric modeling of flesh. Yet the scene feels intentionally dense and claustrophobic. Rather than a pastoral idyll, the forest becomes charged—alive with tension, concealment, and layered meaning. The symbolic animals situate the work within a long art historical lineage. The lamb evokes innocence or sacrifice; the fox suggests cunning and instinct; birds often signify fragility or spirit; the spider embedded in the branches recalls vanitas traditions of the Dutch Golden Age, where small creatures signal mortality and hidden threat. However, the background introduces an additional, more psychological register: the partially obscured eye and the numbers 3, 5, and 7. These are not naturalistic elements; they intrude like fragments from another realm. Their presence subtly aligns with Jungian thought—an area of interest for Surdo—where numbers function as archetypal structures of order within the psyche. In Jungian symbolism, such numbers carry qualitative meaning rather than mere quantity, suggesting stages, wholeness, embodiment, or cycles of psychic development. Their appearance within the forest—traditionally a metaphor for the unconscious—suggests the mind’s attempt to map or structure instinctual terrain. The eye, half-hidden behind branches, intensifies this reading. It can be understood as a symbol of awareness or consciousness emerging from within the thicket of instinct. Rather than divine omniscience, it feels psychological—an archetypal “watcher” embedded in the natural world. The forest thus becomes more than environment; it reads as psychic landscape. Surdo collapses civilization and instinct, rational structure and animal impulse, into a single visual field. Within his broader oeuvre—often concerned with the tension between performance and authenticity, order and chaos—this work becomes a contemporary myth of the psyche. Renaissance form provides authority and structure, while allegorical animals and Jungian symbols suggest the layered architecture of the unconscious. The result is a painting that feels timeless yet inwardly modern: a meditation on innocence, predation, awareness, and the hidden numerical and symbolic frameworks through which the human mind seeks to understand its own wilderness. Bruno Surdo Nature's Web of Dependency oil on canvas 64h x 66.50w in 162.56h x 168.91w cm BRS082 Bruno A. Surdo b. Chicago, 1963 EXHIBITIONS 2021 Ethos + Truth, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL 2020 Realities, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL 2018 Liberation, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL Blood Sport, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL Art on Paper 2018, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Pier 36, New York, NY SOFA Chicago 2018, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL 2017 POP!ARAZZI, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL Coming Attractions, Gallery Victor Armendariz, Chicago, IL 2015 SOFA Chicago 2015, Ann Nathan Gallery, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL Bruno Surdo: Allegories, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2014 Bruno Surdo: Respond, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL Modern Metaphors, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL 2013 Bruno Surdo: Revelations, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL Vice + Virtue, Northern Illinois University Museum of Art 2012 Contemporary Realism Biennial, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN 2011 Bruno Surdo, University of St. Francis School of Creative Arts, Fort Wayne, IN Uncensored, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2010 Art Chicago 2010, Ann Nathan Gallery, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 2009 Art Chicago 2009, Ann Nathan Gallery, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 2007 Bruno Surdo, Art Institute of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN 2006 Context/Content: Making Meaning with the Figure, University of Arkansas, Conway, AR Creative Imaginings, Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL Bruno Surdo: Cycles, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2005 Art Chicago 2005, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2004 Tragedy, Memory, & Honor, Richard M. Daley Center, Chicago, IL Art Chicago 2004, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL Group Show, Arcadia Gallery, New York, NY Drawings VII, Koplin Del Rio Gallery, West Hollywood, CA Armory Show, New York Armory, New York, NY 2003 Paintings & Drawings, College of Lake County, Grayslake, IL The Art Show, New York, NY Bruno Surdo: New Work, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL Art Chicago 2003, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2003-10 International Show of Contemporary Artists, Chicago Art Open, Chicago, IL 2002 Bruno Surdo: Perception of Appearance, Frye Museum, Seattle, WA Tragedy, Memory, & Honor, Richard M. Daley Center, Chicago, IL Bruno Surdo: Transcendence, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL Art Chicago 2002, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL Tragedy, Memory, & Honor, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 2001 Magic Vision, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR 1998 Evanston and Vicinity Artists, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL 1996 Bruno Surdo: A Personal View, University of Wisconsin, Kenosha, WI 1995 Bruno Surdo: Recent Works, College of Lake County, IL AIDS in Our Society, Loyola University, Chicago, IL Bruno Surdo: Life, Struggle, and Hope, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL 2001 Magic Vision, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR Bruno Surdo: Dualities of Life, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 1999 Group Show, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL 1998 Group Exhibition, Fine Arts Building Gallery, Chicago, IL 1995 Spiritual Inquiries, Struve Gallery, Chicago, IL 1994 Recent Works, The 14th Annual Juried Exhibition for Lake County Artists, Grayslake, IL Go Figure, Figurative Works on Paper, Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, Chicago, IL SELECTED COLLECTIONS The Re-Birth of Venus, Temporary Loan, Fort Wayne Museum of Art Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR College of Lake County, Greyslake, IL Flashpoint Academy, Chicago IL John Robert Wiltgen Design Shoemaker Ruud Collection Julie & Thomas Danilek Michael Vozzella and Mike Silver Benjamin Fernandez Tom Braake Betsy Colburn Michael Diemand & Lor LaRose Michael Staab & Kathy Brock Bruce Leep Frank Tzurect Mary Foley Rosalyn Carlson Mimmy Turney Janet Long Halstead Billy Hunt Carol Galli Myles Kerrigan Honorable & Mrs. Edwin Berman Theodore Gage Northrop Art Museum Past Present & Future Company Dr. James & Peggy Kemmler Salvatore Monastero Nix & Virginia Lauridsen Joel Miller David & Marlene Zerkel Ann & Andy Abel Claudia Rush Marc Miller Leonard Goldberg Lawrence Pucci Howard Tullman Collection Susan & Manny Kramer James Rinnert Richar Interiors Michael & Nancy Colt Khalid Altijir Dr. Joe Grodman Beryl & Jack Gore Larry Wolf & Eric Naegle Chuck Wolandi Jack Schwab & David Sandelin Thomas Kaczmarek Marti Dinerstein Craig & Michael Golden...
Canvas, Oil
Laundry Day Oil Painting on Canvas, Old Masters Style, 40x30 in
By Bruno Surdo
Located in Chicago, IL
Laundry Day turns an ordinary street façade into a tender meditation on place, routine, and the quiet theater of everyday life. Surdo fixes his attention on a weathered building with...
Canvas, Oil
Agape Oil Painting on Canvas, Old Masters Style, 40x30 in, 2026
By Bruno Surdo
Located in Chicago, IL
Agape Seen from behind, the seated dog becomes an image of unconditional love. The title lifts the painting into philosophical territory, invoking a form of love that is selfless and...
Canvas, Oil
$18,000
The Fisherman of Mola di Bari - Puglia, Italy, Large Scale Oil Painting, Framed
By Bruno Surdo
Located in Chicago, IL
Fishermen of Mola di Bari represents a deeply personal turn within Bruno Surdo’s practice, grounding his classical training and allegorical sensibility in lived history and ancestral...
Canvas, Oil
$9,500
The Artist and His Dog, Self Portrait with Black and White Dog, Oil on Canvas
By Bruno Surdo
Located in Chicago, IL
Artists often are alone in their studios with little interaction with the outside world. Bruno is no exception. To ease this loneliness, Bruno brings his most trusted companion wit...
Canvas, Oil
$5,656Sale Price|25% Off
H 22.05 in W 20.87 in
Shepherd with Sheep, Cows and a Goat in a Landscape by Jan Frans Soolmaker
Located in Stockholm, SE
Jan Frans Soolmaker (Flanders 1635‑1685) Shepherd with Sheep, Cows and a Goat in a Landscape oil on relined canvas canvas size 56 x 53 cm frame i...
Canvas, Oil
$13,585Sale Price|20% Off
H 44 in W 54 in D 1 in
Huge 17th Century Italian Old Master painting The Return of the Ark of Covenant
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Late 17th Century Italian School. The Return of the Ark on the Covenant, Oil on Canvas, in a Fine 17th Century Italian Frame, canvas: 40.25" x 49.75" (102.3 x 126cm) Fine quality and rare 17th century Italian Old Master...
Canvas, Oil
$445,000
H 52.88 in W 68.88 in
Still Life of Game with Spaniels and Falcons in a Landscape by Carstian Luyckx
Located in SANTA FE, NM
Still Life of Game with Spaniels and Falcons in Landscape Setting Carstian Luyckx (Flemish, 1623 – c.1675) Oil on canvas Circa 1670 Unsigned 43 ½ x 59 1/8 in.; Frame 52 7/8 x 68 7/...
Oil, Canvas
$7,250
H 16 in W 22 in
17th century follower of Rubens, two military men on horse back in a landscape
Located in Woodbury, CT
17th century English/Dutch School, from the Circle of Sir Peter Paul Rubens A very interesting and well-painted 17th-century oil on canvas of two men seated on horseback in a landsc...
Canvas, Oil
$2,451Sale Price|25% Off
H 23 in W 27 in D 1 in
Large 17th Century Italian Old Master Oil Painting Shepherd in Ancient Landscape
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Berger with Animals in Classical Landscape 17th Century Italian Old Master, we cannot see a signature oil painting on canvas, unframed 23 x 27 inches condition: very old reline, mino...
Canvas, Oil
$8,640Sale Price|20% Off
H 32 in W 40 in D 1 in
Huge 18th Century Italian Old Master Oil Painting Figures & Animals Arcadian
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
The Arcadian Landscape Italian School, 18th century oil painting on canvas, unframed canvas size: 32 x 40 inches condition: excellent condition for its age, fully restored. provenance: from a private collection in Paris, France. Large scale classical 18th century Italian Old Master...
Canvas, Oil
$19,500
H 31 in W 33 in
19th century English portrait of a White/grey hunter in a stable
By Charles Towne
Located in Woodbury, CT
English 19th century portrait of a White / Grey hunter in a stable. Charles Towne was born in Wigan in 1763. He was trained as a coach painter, and by ...
Oil, Canvas
$8,151
H 22.5 in W 31 in
19th Century Landscape Oil Painting - Deer by the Banks of a Lake
By Jacob Thompson
Located in London, GB
Jacob THOMPSON (1806 – 1879) Deer by the Banks of a Lake 1842 oil on canvas 18.9 x 27.6 inches; 22.5 x 31 inches Inc. frame Jacob Thompson (1806–1879) was an English landscape-pa...
Oil
$4,125Sale Price|20% Off
H 12.6 in W 10.04 in
Adoration of the Shepherds by a follower of Denys Calvaert
Located in Stockholm, SE
Unknown Italo-Flemish Artist (active circa 1600) Adoration of the Shepherds oil on copper unframed: 32 × 25.5 cm (12.6 × 10 in) framed: 43 × 37 cm (16.9 × 14.6 in) Provenance: Acq...
Copper
$3,481Sale Price|20% Off
H 19.69 in W 17.92 in
Antique oil painting, Boy Fleaing a Dog, Gerard ter Borch, Dutch golden age
Located in DEVENTER, NL
Gerard ter Borch (II) (1617-1681), copy after, around 1700 'Boy Fleas a Dog' Oil on canvas Professionally restored (cleaned and relined) In modern frame in 17th century style Dimensions excl. frame: 33 x 27,5 cm. Dimensions incl. frame: approx. 50 x 45,5 cm. Depcited is a boy busy fleaing a dog. The boy sits on a chair with the dog on his lap. On a table on the right there is a book and a pen. On a wooden bench lies the boy's hat. What is unique about this painting by Ter Borch, is the relationship that is depicted between human and animal. Mostly animals like dogs where depicted as an attribute in paintings in the 17th century, and sometimes used to symbolize certain character traits. This boy is lovingly caring for his dog, which he is giving his full attention. Another interesting detail is that Ter Borch's brother Moses, was probably the model for this painting. Ter borch often used family members as models for his paintings. Moses was also a very talented painter and draughtsman. Several copies of this work by Ter Borch are known. One of these copies is in the collection of the Dutch Rijksmuseum (Image included in the image gallery (last image)). The original painting is in the collection of the Alte Pinakothek museum in Munich, Germany. Gerard ter Borch, also known as Gerard Terburg, was a Dutch genre painter who lived in the Dutch Golden Age. He influenced fellow Dutch painters Gabriel Metsu...
Canvas, Oil
$7,950
H 25 in W 31.5 in
17th century English Birds on a pond and in flight, Ducks, Swans, Kingfisher
By Francis Barlow
Located in Woodbury, CT
Studio of Francis Barlow, English, late 17th century Birds on a Pond with Waterfowl and Birds in Flight Oil on canvas Un-signed Presented in an antique English carved wood frame A f...
Canvas, Oil
$13,650Sale Price|30% Off
H 37 in W 58 in
17th century Italian Horse Battle scene between Crusaders and their enemy
By Jacques Courtois
Located in Woodbury, CT
Fine huge 17th Century Italian/French Old Master Battle Scene of the Crusades, oil on canvas. Grand scale extensive landscape view of a battle from the 1670-80 period, with cavalry f...
Oil
Sold
H 20 in W 24 in
Guardian Oil Painting on Canvas, Old Masters Style, 20x24 in, 2026
By Bruno Surdo
Located in Chicago, IL
Guardian by Bruno Surdo is a quietly powerful oil painting that captures the alert stillness and loyal spirit of a small terrier poised within a shadowed opening. Rendered with lumin...
Oil, Canvas
Sold
H 79 in W 108 in
A Selfie, A Pink Unicorn, Paparazzi! What Does It Take To Get Noticed?
By Bruno Surdo
Located in Chicago, IL
In the age of social media, we are vying for attention 24/7. Bruno Surdo explores this idea in this large scale painting entitled "A Selfie, A Pink Unicorn, Paparazzi? What Does It ...
Canvas, Oil
Sold
H 36 in W 24 in
The Lost Dog of Venice - Back Streets, Nighttime Scene Original Oil on Canvas
By Bruno Surdo
Located in Chicago, IL
It is easy to get lost in the back streets of Venice. The charming back alleys just pull you in and keep you exploring. The artist was visiting the city and did just that - got lost. He came upon the solo occupant of this captivating scene - a shaggy dog. The glow of a single lamp illuminates the scene. This piece is unframed. Contact the gallery for framing options. Bruno Surdo The Lost Dog...
Canvas, Oil
Sold
H 56 in W 46.5 in
The Lost Bride, Red Cadillac Eldorado, a Bride and a Dog, Urban, Oil on Canvas
By Bruno Surdo
Located in Chicago, IL
Is she really lost or is she running away? Bruno Surdo is begging us to ask that question in his painting entitled "The Lost Bride". We are not given many clues yet her faithful co...
Canvas, Oil