ABSTRACT
A painter, maker of assemblages and performance artist. Having been an electrical engineer in the Navy, he then studied at Hornsey College of Art (1948-51) and at the RCA (1951-4). He won an Abbey Minor Travelling Scholarship (1954). His first solo exhibition was at Gimpel Fils (1955), and he held retrospective exhibitions at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and at the Scottish Arts Council Gallery (1975). In 1963 he starred with The Alberts, Ivor Cutler and Joyce Grant in An Evening of British Rubbish at the Comedy Theatre, London, and in 1974 regularly performed An Evening with Bruce Lacey and Jill Bruce. His automaton, Rosa Bosom (1964), is 'a radio-controlled simulated actress'. His work is in the collections of HM The Queen, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, and the Tate Gallery, who possess Boy Oh Boy Am I Living! (1964), a mechanized robot-like figure in a metal frame, and The Womaniser (1966), a reclining, partly inflated figure in mixed media, with six arms ending in rubber gloves, set on a dentist's chair and motorized. From C.1977 to 1987 he staged performances and installations with Jill Bruce of a fantastic and ritual nature, often out-of-doors, leading to paintings.
