Joe Rudko: Tiny Mirrors

Joe Rudko: Tiny Mirrors by Aline SmithsonDecember 18, 2019

©Joe Rudko, Blue Album, 2019, Hand embellishment on found photographs, photo corners, on paper, 50 x 38 inches,Courtesy of the Von Lintel Gallery

I recently curated an exhibition, Beyond the Surface, that will open at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in January about artists who intervene with the surface of a photograph. In the process of considering work to include, gallerist Tarrah Von Lintel introduced me to amazing photomontages of Joe Rudko. Joe currently has an exhibition, Tiny Mirrors, at the Von Lintel Gallery in Los Angeles, closing on Saturday, December 21st.

Joe begins his collaged montages with found photographs that pre-date the digital era. I like to think of him as a cross between a visual anthropologist, carefully sweeping away the extraneous to find the hidden, and a scientist, adding and subtracting elements to create new works and considerations. He cuts and carefully rearranges vernacular photographs into systems of seeing, each effort unique and filled with surprises. The title, Tiny Mirrors, comes from the idea that these fragments of reality reflect back on the viewer’s personal experience, linking past and present. As Joe describes it, “I cut and reorganize found photographs to break the illusion of the pristine image and suggest a variety of interpretations it can have. Working with analog methods in a digital era places these snapshots in dialogue with the present moment. “

©Joe Rudko, RGB Venn Diagram, 2019 Found photographs on paper, 30 x 22 inches, Courtesy of the Von Lintel Gallery

Joe Rudko received his BFA from Western Washington University and has shown broadly in both solo and group exhibitions throughout the Northwest including exhibitions at the Portland Art Museum, PDX Contemporary Art and Greg Kucera Gallery, as well as Von Lintel Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) and Davidson Gallery (New York, NY). 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 and the Facebook Artist in Residence program. His work is featured on the cover of indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie’s album Kintsugi and is included in the permanent collections of the Portland Art Museum, F5, Fidelity Investments, and the City of Seattle. His work has been published in Artforum, Art in America, New American Paintings, Humble Art Foundation, Fukt Magazine for Contemporary Drawing, The Stranger, and The New York Times.