Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

“All of that art-for-art’s-sake stuff is BS,” she declares. “What are these people talking about? Are you really telling me that Shakespeare and Aeschylus weren’t writing about kings? All good art is political! There is none that isn’t. And the ones that try hard not to be political are political by saying, ‘We love the status quo.’ We’ve just dirtied the word ‘politics,’ made it sound like it’s unpatriotic or something.” Morrison laughs derisively. “That all started in the period of state art, when you had the communists and fascists running around doing this poster stuff, and the reaction was ‘No, no, no; there’s only aesthetics.’ My point is that is has to be both: beautiful and political at the same time. I’m not interested in art that is not in the world. And it’s not just the narrative, it’s not just the story; it’s the language and the structure and what’s going on behind it. Anybody can make up a story.” ― Toni Morrison

Dories on the Line, 16" x 26", serigraph, Steven Rhude I’ve looked at this print over the years and still see something different in it each time. It is one of the most simple, yet problematic things I’ve ever done. At first there was some humor in the idea that as a motif it is highly unrealistic – that is, no clothes line could support a dory, or three for that matter. Then I construed the idea that boats are not toys and the fisheries is no laughing matter. Livelihoods are at stake and a culture is emphasized in its most vulnerable and fundamental state. Eventually I've come to see and conclude that this is a political print in that there always has, and probably will always be, something about the Maritimes that is “Hung out to Dry”. I need not look any further than our recent film industry debacle to see this print still has yet to reach its political conclusion. ...

Nude, Copper Plate Etching, 7" x 10", 7/15, Steven Rhude, Harvest Gallery Rare Proof, "At the Wharf", 1st state, 9" x 12", Steven Rhude, Harvest Gallery Rare Proof with original copper plate , "Moon lit Cove" Steven Rhude, Harvest Gallery These three etchings will be in "Press 2016" at Harvest Gallery, Wolfville, NS - opening February 28th. www.harvestgallery.ca Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

  If you're strolling through Wolfville on a winter's day you may not expect to meet up with "The Dutchman" - that is unless you wander into Lynda Macdonald 's Harvest Gallery. www.harvestgallery.ca http://stevenrhude.wix.com/artist-painter Artists are often called upon by the contemporary establishment (AKA as the judge and jury) to explain their work, or at times a specific painting. As though an explanation will unlock some code we have recently stumbled upon but lack the means or where with all to decipher. The Dutchman (Rembrandt) succ eeded in spawning a lot of conjecture regarding the nature of the "circle" not only in his Kenwood self portrait, but in the frame work of western painting. He had no idea that eventually he would become a noun or even an image - but this is none the less the case today. Let us not be led astray by this objective. However, it may be that the mystical properties of the circle evident in Rembrandt...

http://stevenrhude.wix.com/artist-painter Fields and Lace, oil on panel, 16" x 20"  Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

Realism’s long, sometimes uneasy, relationship with contemporary art making practices has often seen its proponents at odds with current mainstream or academic modes and genres. The exhibition Capture 2014: Nova Scotia Realism, seeks to dispel common assumptions about the nature of Realist art by presenting recent work by artists who are pushing its boundaries. Above all, the exhibition questions received notions of the status and place of Realism in the contexts of current art practices and contemporary society. - Preface to ‘Capture 2014 ’ Installation view, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Yarmouth, Western Branch "There's always been realist painting. The avant-garde ignores 99 per cent of it." - Eric Fishel In the autumn of 2010 a group of ten painters from Nova Scotia informally met at an old Victorian house in Halifax to discuss the state of representational painting in their home province. Eventually under a “Realist” banner they would form a coa...