Steve Brudniak

During the 1980s Brudniak was an active member of the Houston Alternative Art scene, working from several studios in the historical Houston Heights neighborhood and represented by four different galleries during this time.[1] In 1988 he moved to his Bouldin Creek art studio in Austin, Texas[2] continuing to produce art that has been exhibited in well over 100 gallery and museum exhibitions.[1]^{: 193-194 pp.} Brudniak's work is included in the collections of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, San Antonio Museum of Art, Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, El Paso Museum of Art, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, and Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans.[1]^{: 197 p.}[3][4][5] In 2008 his Astrogeneris Mementos became the first assemblage sculptures exhibited in outer space, taken aboard the International Space Station by entrepreneur and astronaut Richard Garriott.[1]^{: 159-162 pp.}[6]^{: 71 p.}[7][8] He is currently represented by the Davis Gallery in Austin, Texas.

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, Tesla coil technology,[9] magnetic ferrofluid, gyro mechanics, biological preservations, fiber optics, and lasers. He integrates disparate found objects in the construction of his art, however the finished pieces do not resemble collage, rather they give the appearance of being functional machines or ritualistic objects.[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: Tesla coils, Ferro fluid magnetics, electrically-induced mental imagery and other 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.}

In her 1992 ARTnews review, Elizabeth McBride elaborates: “Working at the intersection of science and art, Steve Brudniak combines machines and tools with fluids, electricity, heat, and magnetism to create assemblages that do much more than just exist. They perform and at times invite the viewer to participate.”[12] Spirituality, psychology, ontology, and physics are common themes in Brudniak's work.[1][10] “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]

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 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]

• Artists Website (Includes resume and links to reviews)
• Actor Website
• Book Website
• Steve Brudniak at IMDb
• YouTube Channel
• Spiny Normen Article
• 71 Magazine Interview
• Art Book Guy Interview