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Winston Wächter Fine Art Seattle is pleased to share Portrait Mode, a selection of work from the past 5 years from Seattle-based artist Joe Rudko. Utilizing a range of found photographs, Rudko meticulously categorizes imagery into deconstructions of the portrait— both as a genre and a recognizable icon. The greyscale, gridded compositions of ‘Portrait Quilt,’ ‘Chair,’ and ‘Verso’ (the latter of which incorporates patchy impressions from the back of photographs) tamper with portraiture as a concrete representation of form. Discernible snippets of faces, chairs, and silhouettes blur into an overarching fabric suggesting multiplicity, or a careful, exacting version of reality mimicking our own curated online selves. Quieter, fractal-like ‘Inlaid’ artworks utilize single images inlaid into unfixed photo paper, thoughtfully splintering a single figure into isolated, geometric components. Rudko’s collages rely on precise calculation rendered into expressive, unexpected combinations.
Joe Rudko lives and works in Seattle. He received his BFA in Photography and Drawing from Western Washington University in 2013. His work is in the permanent collection of The Getty Museum, Portland Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and most recently in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.
