Steven Rhude - Paintings/Drawings

Portrait of Caplin Cove, Nfld, oil on board, 30" x 48", Steven Rhude                                                                The Otherness of Things "Reflected on the surface of the pencil is also the inherited and entangled history for his father's care for this important, and perhaps useful object. There is a certain intimacy suggested. He sharpened it by hand, tactfully. The surface suggests he touched it often in his work. The history to their exposure to each other seems clearly visible - they remember each other in their flesh. Indeed, it seems that he felt, in a certain sense, obligated and responsible for it. He did not simply dispose of it when it became...

Judy - Opening of "Surfing the Ironing Board", Mary E. Black Gallery, Halifax, NS                                                       "Surfing the Ironing Board" Hooked Rugs by Laura Kenney                                             Mary E. Black Gallery in Halifax. The show runs from May 20 - July 10, 2016. "Every relationship between persons causes a picture of each  to take form in the mind of the other. And this picture evidently is in reciprocal relationship with that personal relationship." - Georg Simmel    ...

Olympia's Cat, oil on board, 12" x 17", Steven Rhude   "Like the prostitute, the cat was discrete but not respectable, neither bourgeois nor working class but rather a bohemian figure flaunted by artists and intellectuals who enjoyed the ‘independent, almost heartless’ character of  the cat." - Jody Berland https://www.academia.edu/1223080/Cat_and_Mouse_Iconographies_of_Nature_and_Desire  "Olympia reclines coolly on her chaise lounge, surveying the viewer (her next client) with a look as clinical as the exchange that's about to take place. Though boasting a fine art-historical pedigree, based as it is on Titian’s Venus of Urbino , the painting caused outrage for rendering its model not as an idealised, ancient goddess but as an unashamedly contemporary whore from Montmartre. Inspired by the Realism of Courbet, as well as Baudelaire’s call for artists to paint “modern life”, Manet said matter-of-factly: “I just paint what I see. Cou...

Essentially, with so many people in the province leaving – people from all walks of life - as a result of poor economic conditions, even poorer political judgement, jobs at any cost to the landscape, and greener pastures abroad, I used this door as an opportunity to explore and remind myself what it was that brought me here in the first place. If ever there was a time to ask “What about Nova Scotia?” this is it. Door in studio Recall Door, oil/wood with text on reverse. Reverse side with text Recall: He recalled her saying he did not seem to have a lot of childhood memories. Perhaps this was true or perhaps it wasn't; yet like a broken movie reel, the film had been spliced together but with a few pieces missing. What he did remember was in stark contrast to his ocean home now, like the pattern of cookie cutter capitalism and its perfect suburban grid. Intercom systems. Elevators with floor buttons scorched by cigarettes. The beige walls of an apart...

Manet's Olympia From Olympus, home of the gods, and on through to modernism, the portrayal of the female nude within the context of an intimate subject matter continues its historic journey, but does it still carry with it a grand narrative capable of undermining our skepticism? Probably not. Skepticism is the common thread running through most of the waning post modern exercise. The portrayal of the nude human figure (man or woman) now has as it's hallmark an artificiality about it, an affectation that implies that nudity has actually become a form of clothing in itself. We seem more interested in common marketing schemes like the "wardrobe malfunction" or the "naked selfie", rather than the narrative once posited to the Eurocentric tradition couched in the form of  Sacred and Profane Love. We forget that Olympia was once ours to behold.  Back in 1865 the modern name Olympia was code for a Parisian prostitute. Within a single painting, this code...

War Against the Mystics, oil on board, Dyptych, 30" x 36", Steven Rhude A post modern elegy - The Flaming Lips: It overtakes me, It overtakes me It overtakes me... Oh oh oh I It overtakes me, It Master-Slaves me It overtakes me... Oh oh oh I It overtakes me, It overtakes me It overtakes me... Oh oh oh I It overtakes me, It Wakes and Bakes me It overtakes me... Oh oh oh I You know that it isn't real You'll disappear in a black hole You know that it isn't real Floating out of control.... Oh Wow It overtakes me, it overtakes me It overtakes me... Oh oh oh I It overtakes me, It Master-Slaves me It overtakes me... Oh oh oh I And I'm there, looking up at the sky And I'm scared, thinkin' 'bout the way that I Don't understand anything at all... And how it overtakes me... and I am just so small... Do I stand a chance? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4O7aI87E3g Steven Rhude

Circles of Rembrandt, oil on board, 24`x 52`, Steven Rhude, sold