Joe Rudko, Intermediate Techniques of Photography

April 4th – April 28th

PDX CONTEMPORARY ART
925 NW Flanders Street
Portland OR 97209

HOURS: 11:00 – 6:00 Tues. – Sat.
ADMISSION:    Free
Open First Thursday,   April 5th, 2018, 6:00 – 8:00

This April PDX CONTEMPORARY ART presents Intermediate Techniques of Photography, an exhibition of images by Joe Rudko that explores both the magic and the limitations of the photograph.

Using collage, drawing and sculptural methods Rudko extends, manipulates and distorts found images to create new relationships of color and line. With an improvisational confidence, he gives once-antiquated snapshots new life through creative play.

Like analog glitches, Rudko’s images stutter and shapeshift, demonstrating the malleability of photographs as representations of reality and as physical objects. Taken with the knowledge that truth is becoming increasingly recognized as an unstable concept in our world, the relevance of Rudko’s explorations becomes more profound.

Joe Rudko is a graduate of Western Washington University and has shown broadly in both solo and group exhibitions throughout the Northwest including shows at PDX CONTEMPORARY ART (Portland, OR), Roq La Rue (Seattle, WA), LxWxH (Seattle, WA), Disjecta Center for Contemporary Art (Portland, OR), Photo Center Northwest (Seattle, WA), Whatcom Museum of Art (Bellingham, WA), and Greg Kucera Gallery (Seattle, WA), among others. He has been the recipient of the Future List Award and two Art Walk Awards from City Arts Magazine as well as the Vermont Studio Center Fellowship Award. His work was also featured on the cover of indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie’s 2015 album Kintsugi and is included in the collections of the Portland Art Museum, Fidelity Investments, and the private collections of Dorothy Lemelson, James and Susan Winkler, and Driek Zirinsky.

The Work:
• Explores the photograph as malleable object for creative play and for exploring the unstability of truth in the visual
• Uses collage and drawing techniques to dissemble found material and create new visual relationships, extending the fragments and giving them new lives
• Improvisational, playful, renders photographic interpretation unstable and precarious
• Questions the photograph as a representation of history

The Artist:
• Lives and works in Seattle, Washington
• Uses the photograph as a jumping off point for exploring the perception of truth in the visual
• Shown widely in the Northwest, with solo and group shows in Seattle, Bellingham, and Portland
• Recipient of the Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, Future List Award, and two Art Walk Awards from City Arts Magazine
• His work was featured on the cover of indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie’s 2015 album Kintsugi