Artist Biography & Facts

Bruce Leslie Wolfe

Bruce Wolfe (1941-2022)

Bruce Wolfe was s a native Californian, having resided in Northern California nearly all his life. Adept in oils as well as lost-wax bronze, he has received commissions to do portraits of many notable persons. Mr. Wolfe has earned numerous honors for his work, including a Clio, Endowment of Arts Federal Achievement Award; First Place at the Art of the Portrait Conference 2001; a Joseph Henniger Award; and Zellerbach and Foster & Kleiser Awards.

He studied art at San Jose State University and the Art Institute of San Francisco. He has also studied with Bettina Steinke and Bruno Lucchesi. Mr. Wolfe has taught figure painting at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, and sculpture and painting at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California.

Bruce Wolfe has had five solo exhibitions of his work including one at La Galerie, in Paris, France. Group exhibitions in which he has participated are: Richard MacDonald Gallery, San Francisco; Gallery One, Mendocino; Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek; Civics Arts Gallery, Walnut Creek; American Illustration, New York; “Rolling Stone, The Illustrated Portraits”, at the Museum of American Illustration, New York; Northern Arizona University Gallery and “Images of an Era”, Smithsonian, Washington DC.

For the Old Mission in Santa Barbara, Mr. Wolfe was chosen to do four seven-foot figures in their chapel. The first two bronzes of St. Clare and St. Francis, plus a 6’ bronze Damiano Cross were installed in the fall of 2001. The bronze figures of Christ and Mary Magdalene were decorated with orchids and candles and installed for Easter of 2003.

The heroic-sized sculpture (l.2 life size) of Barbara Jordan in the Austin, Texas, airport was well received at the November 2002 unveiling. Mr. Wolfe was selected to do the sculpture after a comprehensive artist selection process. Each of the six finalists selected from fifty candidates, did a maquette and presented it, as well as spoke to a panel of judges. He was very honored to do the sculpture of Ms. Jordan, a Texan heroine.

Installed in the New Asian Art Museum in San Francisco is a portrait of Chong Moon Lee, a substantial donor to the Museum, sculpted by Mr. Wolfe. The sculpture was unveiled as part of the formal dedication ceremonies of the Museum in March 2003.

Mr. Wolfe’s Mother and Daughter sculpture was installed in front of the Times Performing Center in Jacksonville, Florida, as a touching memorial to Mayor Austin’s wife.

In 1998 he crafted an 8’ bronze of T. Jack Foster, the founder of Foster City, California. It is placed in front of the new Foster City, City Hall. He also did a 6 l/2’ bronze bas-relief of Benjamin Kalberer for a Hazelton, North Dakota gymnasium.

Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California, has a heroic-sized Bruce Wolfe bronze figure of St. John Baptist De La Salle in front of the college, a 54’ and 41’ bronze of St. Anne and St. Mary for the new chapel and a life-size work of St. Jude. Saint Mary’s also has a bronze portrait of Brother Mel Anderson, former president; and a bronze medallion bas-relief of Mr. Ageno, a donor to the college. They also have paintings by Mr. Wolfe of Charles Soda, Regent; and other donors Mr. Frank Filippi, Mr. & Mrs. Linus Claeys, and Mr. & Mrs. Silvio Garaventa.

In 1999 he crafted a 24” bronze portrait of Steve Silver, creator of the long running San Francisco play, Beach Blanket Babylon. The bronze sits atop a large stone in front of the Club Fugazi and is engraved with images from the play. His 1996 bronze of George P. Shultz, former Secretary of State, is at Stanford University and another one at the Hebrew University in Israel.

Maestro Kurt Herbert Adler was sculpted by Mr. Wolfe for the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House in 1967.  It is a 36” bronze bas-relief.

He has also painted portraits of Bruce McCandless, a NASA astronaut, displayed in the Smithsonian Aerospace Museum; Anthony Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice; W.J. Sanders III, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices; George Will, Muhammad Ali, John Muir, and Jack London.

Bruce Wolfe is represented by Shuptrine’s of Lookout Mountain, TN.