Eric Rudd

is foremost a sculptor specializing in new technologies.  Founding and operating Rudd Studio since 1965, Eric Rudd has established a reputation for innovative art. Finding synergy with space, Eric Rudd has also been involved with real estate development, especially spaces that relate to the arts. As a non-traditional real estate developer and creator of new businesses, products and organizations.  Eric Rudd has successfully pioneered massive projects before there was common support.

Artist Eric Rudd has explored extensively the use of rigid, polyurethane foam.  Development of this industrial process, beginning in 1972, has allowed the realization of monumental sized sculptures impossible with traditional materials.  In 1987, Rudd also uniquely developed in cooperation with G.E. Plastics, the first blow-molded, clear Lexan sculptures ever made.  These monumental sculptures incorporate many of the traditional characteristics of glass blowing, but with a complexity and scale not possible with glass.  Since 1995, Rudd has incorporated latest robotic technologies into his art.

Eric Rudd is interested, and actively explores, new uses of high-tech industrial polycarbonates in spray and blow molding processes, as well as in combination with robotics and other processes/materials.  Large-scale projects include installations with computer programmed mobile viewing chairs that direct the viewers in an artist-planned time sequence.  Opened to the public in 1996, the 15,000 square-foot Dark Ride Project exhibition (www.darkrideproject.org), merges multi-media and interactive technology with new art forms. Presenting the art in new ways, the exhibition also expands the audience base by overcoming cultural, physical, language and educational barriers. A highlight is an eleven-minute ride on the robotic "Sensory Integrator" through "creative space."  Current studio projects include his “Top Secret Project” involving new technologies, a monumental epic with 150 life-sized figures for installation in a chapel, a twelve-foot high robotic sculpture that is choreographed by a computer, and the expansive “Night Garden of the Hesperides,” where robotic creatures, the largest 20-feet high and all using autonomous intelligence technologies, roam about protecting or seeking four-foot ‘eggs’ in an environment covering 10,000 to 20,000 square feet.

After studies at American University (1964-68) as well as in Italy and Austria, Rudd joined the prestigious Jefferson Place Gallery (Washington DC) in 1966, where he had several one-person shows.  He later showed at the Diane Brown Gallery and exhibited in numerous shows including in the International Sculpture Conference Exhibition in 1980 and in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.  Among several film and photo documentaries, Rudd was featured in Foaming- with Eric Rudd made in 1977, by the U.S.I.A. for television broadcast abroad in 1985 and in Downside-Up for broadcast on PBS in 2002. 

Along with an extensive exhibition record, Eric Rudd's work is included in private and public collections in the United States, Europe and Asia, including such museum collections as San Francisco Museum of Art, Allentown Museum of Art, Joslyn Museum of Art, The Menil Collection, National Museum of American Art (Smithsonian) and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which exhibited his work in 1971 and in a one-person show in 1973.  Rudd has taught drawing, painting and sculpture, including for the Graduate School - United States Department of Agriculture, Contemporary Artists Center-Berkshire School of Contemporary Art and for the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC.  Honors have included a 1978 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant and a 1994 three-month fellowship grant from the Japan Foundation, when he also lectured, produced sculptures and exhibited them in Tokyo.

In 1990, Rudd founded the Contemporary Artists Center - Berkshire School of Contemporary Art in the 130,000 square foot Beaver Mill in North Adams, Massachusetts and served as Director (pro-bono) for ten years.  The Center allows artists to explore new directions using large-scale studio space, industrial materials and processes as well as to exhibit in its five galleries.  The Center attracts world leading museum and gallery directors, critics, scholars and artists each summer to work with developing artists.

Rudd has been the subject of, and has written, many newspaper and magazine articles.  He has also written a play, Wet Paint  (and co-directed a production at Manic Stage, 1999), authored two books,  The Art World Dream – Alternative Strategies for Working Artists  and The Art Studio/Loft Manual – For Ambitious Artists and Creators and is currently working on several books/plays, including co-writing a new ‘Shakespearean’ play.  Rudd frequently lectures about the business of doing creative work.

Eric Rudd is president of Cire Corporation, a real estate development, management and consulting company specializing in creative solutions for properties.  Development projects have included several commercial, residential and historic properties in Washington DC and western Massachusetts.  Large projects included the conversion of raw warehouse space into 25 studio/lofts (O Street Studios) in Washington DC, 34,000 SF - 7th & D Streets Building into large gallery and arts related commercial spaces, including three floors of space for the Washington Project for the Arts, and the vacant 130,000 SF Beaver Mill into arts related uses.  Recent and current projects in North Adams include development of the historic Flatiron Building into 18 condominium residential and retail units and renovation of the 125,000 square foot Eclipse Mill into forty, large studio-loft condominiums.  He is also co-founder of The Rudder Group, a private real estate marketing and brokerage firm.

As an artist knowledgeable in business, Rudd was asked to serve on the Northern Berkshire Economic Council Steering Committee, Northern Berkshire Industrial Park and Development Corporation's Art Technology Committee, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Foundation, Inc, and board member for the Northern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce and the Berkshire Visitors Bureau. He has also worked, informally, to support the new Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened in North Adams in 1999.  He is a current board member of the Berkshire Visitors Bureau, and a member of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, Cultural Arts Alliance and Berkshire Chamber of Commerce. 

Together with his wife, he worked as board member of La Festa, Inc. (a community multi-cultural festival and organization) and established the first 'Grand Auction' in Northern Berkshire, which raised more than $100,000 for local schools.  Together they have held tours of their loft project and the Contemporary Artists Center to local groups, held receptions for visiting artists and directors, including receptions on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce for visiting Governor Weld and the Berkshire Visitors Bureau as well as hosted meetings or worked on behalf of many other organizations.  His annual “Eagle Street Beach,” created in 1999, turns an entire street into an urban beach using 250,000 lbs. of sand.  The event, which attracts hundreds of children and families to participate, is now being done more recently in major cities around the world.  Rudd was honored with the region’s prestigious Francis H. Hayden Memorial Award in 1999.

Eric Rudd has been active throughout the community in developing partnerships between art and business, as well as the reevaluation and preservation of abandoned historic buildings.  This new awareness has inspired several organizations to consider new options -- Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts to develop an arts-management degree program and the country’s first Robotic-Arts Program, NBIPDC to consider reuse of old mills in an arts’ based economy, and the City of North Adams to reassess historic properties in its downtown.  Eric Rudd uniquely develops not only imaginative art ideas, but spends time to allow the community at-large to share in his excitement and energy.

 

Eric Rudd lives in the Historic Beaver Mill, North Adams, Massachusetts, with his wife Barbara.  They have two grown children.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2005   Blue Space, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

2005   Art Space, North Adams, MA

2002   New England School of Art and Design, Suffolk University, Boston, MA

2001   A Chapel for Humanity, North Adams, MA

1996  Dark Ride Project, North Adams, MA

1994  Public Art Gallery Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan

1989  Ten Years, O Street Studios, Washington DC

1981  Diane Brown Gallery, Washington DC

1979  Grace Muchmore Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1979  Ontogens: Diane Brown Gallery, Washington DC

1977  Fraser's Stable Gallery, Washington DC

1975  Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington DC

1973  Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC

1973  Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington DC

1971  Hood College, Frederick, MD

1971  Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington DC

1969  Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington DC

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2009  Not New Work: Vincent Fecteau Selects from the Collection: Lynda Benglis/Judy
      Chicago/Friedel Dzubas/ Max Ernst/ Richard Faralla/ Ralph Goings/ Joe Goode/ Charles 
      Howard/ Ralph Humphrey/ Jess/ Ron Nagle/ Robert Overby/ Dorothy Reid/ Diego
      Rivera/ Eric Rudd/ George Segal/ Wayne Thiebaud/ Tom of Finland/ H.C. Westermann/
      Chirstopher Wilmarth/ Peter Young. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SF, CA
2007 “Big,” Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC
1993 "Old Sheet,” Site Specific Installation, CAC, North Adams, MA 1991 "Open"-
      Contemporary Artists Center, North Adams, MA
1989 "30 Years Later"- Gallery K, Washington DC
1986 "Jefferson Place Gallery Show"- 406 Galleries, Washington DC
1986 "Earth Views"- National Air & Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Wash. DC
1984 "Sited Toward the Future, Proposals for Public Sculpture"- Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA
1984 "Washington Sculpture"-Georgetown Court Artists' Space, Washington DC
1982 "Atlantic Coast-Pacific Coast"- CA College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, CA
1982 "Hanover"- Osuna Gallery, Washington DC
1980 "Forty American Sculptors"- XII International Sculpture Conference, Wash. DC
1980 "Drawings-13 Washington Sculptors"-Diane Brown Gallery, Wash. DC
1979 "Washington Artists at HEW"- HEW, Washington DC
1979 "Outdoor Sculpture; City Art '79"- Studio Gallery, Washington DC
1979 "35 Washington Painters"- Washington Project for the Arts, Wash. DC
1979 "Second Annual Invitational Sculpture Show"- Art Barn, Washington DC
1978 "Outdoor Sculpture '78"- Northern Virginia Community College, Annadale, VA
1978 "Art '78, Washington"- Fellus Gallery, Washington DC
1977 "Eight Washington Artists"- George Meany Center for Labor Studies, MD
1976 "Collectibles"- Polo Gallery, Washington DC
1976 "Corcoran School of Art,Selected Faculty Show"Corcoran Gallery,WashDC
1975 "Recent Acquisitions-Drawings and Prints"- Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
1973 "Group Show"- Kingpitcher Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
1973 "Drawings and Small Works"-Washington Gallery of Art, Washington DC
1971 "Group Show"- O.K. Harris Gallery, New York, NY
1971 "Group Show"- St. Mary's College, St. Mary, MD
1970 "Washington 20 Years"- Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
1967 "Group Show"- Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington DC
1967 "Eight Washington Artists"- Jewish Community Center, Washington DC
1966 "Eric Rudd & Valerie Hollister"-Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington DC
1965 "Group Show"- Charles Gallery, Baltimore, MD

 

PAST ACTIVITIES

 

1994   Japan Foundation Artists Fellowship

1979   National Endowment for the Arts Artists Fellowship

1966  Second Prize in Painting, Emilio Vedova, International Academy of Fine Arts, Salzburg, Austria

Founding Director, Contemporary Artists Center- Berkshire School of Contemporary Art - North Adams, MA 1990-1999

(Founding) Board of Directors, Washington Sculptors Group  1982-90

Founder of "O Street Studios"- Washington DC 1978-

Certified Foam Mechanic, Gusmer Corporation, 1974

Film:  "Foaming, with Eric Rudd" 1977 Alison Rose

Film:  "Eric Rudd, Sculptor"  1987  America Today, USIA

Founder of Eclipse Mill Artist Studio Lofts 2002-03

 

Author

Wet Paint (play),

The Art World Dream – Alternative Strategies for Working Artists, (book)

The Art Studio/Loft Manual – For Ambitious Artists and Creators (book),

numerous articles (list upon request).

 

Residencies

General Electric Co., G.E. Plastics, Polymer Processing

          Development Center, 1987, 1988, 1991

 

Teaching

Instructor (Drawing, Mixed Media) Corcoran School of Art 1970-76;

Instructor, Graduate School, U.S.D.A. 1971-78;

Instructor, Berkshire School of Contemporary Art 1990-99;

Guest Artist, Panelist and Lecturer- list upon request.

 

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

 

San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA

Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL

Allentown Museum of Art, Allentown, PA

National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Institute of Policy Studies, Washington DC

Westinghouse Corporation, Washington DC

The Menil Collection, Houston, TX

Gulf Texas Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA

Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA

Prudential Insurance Company, Hartford, CT

Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE

Peat Marwick Collection, Washington DC

Public Art Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan