Steve Brudniak (born April 9, 1961, Topeka, Kansas) is an American artist, actor, filmmaker and musician. Known for highly crafted, unusual assemblage sculpture, imbued with transcendental and unique scientific elements; his visual art career spans over four decades, with work in the permanent collections of several art museums in United States. His acting and film endeavors began at the age of 13. Some notable roles include pivotal characters in Richard Linklater’s Waking Life and Robert Rodriguez’s Hypnotic. Brudniak was also a founding member of Spiny Normen and other psychedelic music groups from 1977 ‒ present and operated Victorian Recording Studio during the mid 1980’s. He spent his elementary, high school years, and early 20’s in Houston, Texas, eventually moving to Austin, Texas where he currently lives.[1][2]
Art
Noumenon Objectifying in Four Parts (2005), assemblage with emanating reflection optical lens, 48 x 19 x 6 in. (collection of Catarina Sigerfoos, Austin, Texas)The Vagus Leviathan (2008), assemblage with photograph, fiber optic lens and kinetic mechanism, 50 x 21 x 6 in. (Collection of John Little)Ontological Catastrophe (2019), assemblage with antique electronic test equipment and engraved cast iron, carved phenolic and ABS plastics. 51 x 31 x 7 in.In the Wake of the Exodus Toward the Breach in the Gate (2018), assemblage with ultraviolet light, glass optics, antique bronze fish, brass plate, antique cast iron, carved phenolic, 4 million year old fish fossil, colored jojoba oil and brass snake chain. 82 x 33 x 8 in.
Brudniak's assemblages engage the phenomena of consciousness through applications of experimental phenomenal media, incorporating, often pioneering, unconventional and scientific elements such as high voltage electricity, gyro mechanics, combustion, ultraviolet, laser, optical and fiber optic technologies, as well as the oldest known geological and living preservations. His 1987 Imogene Icon (collection of San Antonio Museum of Art)[9] is considered the earliest application of a Tesla coil incorporated into a permanent sculpture and his 1991 sculpture The Saturated Well of Baptism, the first to use magnetic ferrofluid in a sculptural context.[1][3][6][10][11]
Filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro writes, “Each of Steve Brudniak’s artifacts is a relic from a time that never was, and each of them holds a secret. Through superb craftsmanship and a keen eye for design, Brudniak integrates science and technology into his sculptures: ...groundbreaking uses of retro tech shock, produce lightning, induce hypnosis, reflect impossible images and light and produce sound through interaction. Liquids miraculously come alive. Other works amaze merely with their unprecedented content and exquisite form. Brudniak fabricates, manipulates or re-shapes found materials into absolutely coherent, powerful works of art.”[1]: 10 p.
His integration of found objects in the construction of art differs from collage by appearing to be operational machines or ritualistic implements that operate on psychological and spiritual levels.[1]: 13‒14p. [10] In her 1992 ARTnews review, Elizabeth McBride elaborates: “The landscape he has created with his latest sculptures is dark, frightening, reminiscent of ancient sacrificial structures and torture chambers. And although they are assemblages, they resemble real objects that at some time might have really existed. Thus the physical beauty of Brudniak's work is balanced by the horror of obsession, addiction, and captivity. Caught in such conflicts, we feel danger is everywhere…Brudniak achieves a powerful, exquisite range not only with real objects-how easy to slip into the trap, how difficult to climb out—but with illusions, whose most potent effects are created not in the gallery but in the internal world that each of us inhabits.”[12] Arts writer and curator Anjali Gupta observes, “His explorations of the self and the subconscious become deliberately and elaborately inscrutable vaults for the unknowable. He invalidates the deductive reasoning associated with scientific hypotheses in his conceptual approach but mollifies it in the aesthetic outcome. Brudniak tilts referentiality without mollifying it; rather, he encrypts it.”[1]: 13 p.
His Treatise, Saving Beauty: The Painful Rebirthing of Visual Aesthetic in Contemporary Art, is a scolding commentary on the diminishing importance of visual beauty and craft in postmodern, contemporary art.[11][13]
Art Books and Documentaries
The monograph, The Science of Surrealism - Assemblage Sculpture of Steve Brudniak was published in 2013 documenting thirty years of the artist's career in photos, essays and commentary. It was edited by Anjali Gupta, with a foreword by Guillermo del Toro and is in 99 public, university, and museum libraries worldwide.[1][14] Books and documentaries featuring Brudniak's work are listed in the bibliography below.
Art books
Bunch, Robert Craig. Dreams, Visions, Other Worlds: Interviews with Texas Artists. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2024
Brenner, Wayne Alan. Minerva’s Wreck: Austin Arts Anthology, Austin TX: Café Armageddon, 2010.
Branwyn, Gareth. Device Volume 2: Reconstructed, San Diego, CA: IDW Publishing, July 2009.
Reese, Becky Duval. Texas 100: Selections from the El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX: El Paso Museum of Art Foundation, 2006.
Otten, William G. and Michelle W. Locke. The Legacy Continues, Corpus Christi, TX: Art Museum of South Texas, 2006.
Morton, Jennifer. Belong: A TV Journalist's Search for Urban Culture: from Beirut to Bamako, from Havana to Ho Chi Minh City: Stories and Photos. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Insomniac Press, 2004.
Greene, Alison de Lima. Texas: 150 Works from the Museum of Fine Arts. NY, NY: Harry N. Abrams, October 1, 2000.
Hendricks, Patricia D. and Becky Duval Reese. A Century of Sculpture in Texas 1889-1989. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1989.
McEvilley, Thomas. Another Reality. Houston, TX: Hooks-Epstein Galleries, June 1989.
Art documentary
Ulteriaphobia: The Art of Steve Brudniak. Dir. Luke Savisky. Austin, TX: Klaus und Hans Productions, 1995, Video documentary.
Indie Live Austin. “Steve Brudniak: Interview with Diana Brochin.” Austin, TX: ACTV, January 2010.
Steve Brudniak – Noumenon. Dir. Wiley Wiggins. Austin, TX: 2008, Video documentary.
Steve Brudniak. Dir. Andrew Nourse. Austin, TX: Andy Nourse Productions, 1998 Video documentary.
Film
Brudniak began acting in and directing his own short films at the age of 13[2] and has appeared in over 50 films, notably Richard Linklater's Waking Life and Robert Rodriguez's Red 11 and Hypnoitic; in video production and television shows including the Reelz Channels Murder Made Me Famous, AMC's The Son and El Rey Network's Rebel Without a Crew. In 2009 he produced, acted in and co-directed Eric Frodsham's Moments The Go feature film. Brudniak is also a voice actor for video games, narration, animation and radio and television commercials. He has appeared in advertising for Ford, PNC Bank, LegalZoom, Mido Lotto, Texas Tourism, Capital One, Indian Motorcycle, Cox Business and others.[15][16][17]
(See Actor Website under external links below for complete filmography)
In 1976 he and guitar player Gerry Diaz formed the psychedelic rock group Spiny Normen and recorded an album at the Alvin Community College which was released
four decades later on RidingEasy Records in 2018, with Brudniak on keyboards, flute, vocals, and some drums tracks.[18] In 1981 he opened the Victorian Recording Studio in Houston, recording many of Houston's alternative, metal, folk, skate and punk groups.[2] He also recorded and performed as a drummer in several bands in both Houston and Austin. He continues to record with Diaz in an experimental effort called Psylobison, playing theremin and Wavetech sound wave generator.[19]
The Bell Park Loon (on Brown Acid: The Second Trip, compilation album)
RidingEasy
Recorded 1979
2010
Spiny Normen
The Sound of Younger Times (on Brining It All Back Again, compilation album)
Shroom Angel Records
Recorded 1979
Citations
^ abcdefghijGupta, Anjali, ed. (2013). The Science of Surrealism - Assemblage Sculpture of Steve Brudniak. Merrid Zone. Austin, Texas. 198 pp. ISBN978-0-615-75370-6
^ abGreene, Alison de Lima (2000). Texas: 150 Works from the Museum of Fine Arts. Harry N. Abrams, INC Publishers. New York, NY. 278 pp. (see pages 109-110 & 227) ISBN0-8109-6706-5
^Reese, Becky Duval (foreword & introduction), with contributions from Ben Fyffe et al. (2006). Texas 100: Selections from the El Paso Museum of Art. El Paso Museum of Art. El Paso, Texas. 125 pp. ISBN978-0978538309
^Otten, William G.; Locke, Michelle W. (2006). The Legacy Continues. Corpus Christi, TX: Art Museum of South Texas.
^Hendricks, Patricia D. & Becky Duval Reese (1989). A Century of Sculpture in Texas 1889-1989. University of Texas Press. Austin, Texas xiii, 185 pp. (see pages 113-114 & 153) ISBN978-0935213188
^ abBunch, Robert Craig (2016). The Art of Found Objects: Interviews with Texas Artists (Vol. 18, Joe and Betty Moore Texas Art Series). Texas A&M University Press. College Station, Texas. 214 pp. ISBN978-1623496043
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