D EN NIS RUDOLPH
A R T IFICI A L _ GODS
7 - 12 J u n e 2 0 2 0
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Upstream Gallery presents Upstream Focus, a series of single work exhibitions in our private viewing space. Every week we will highlight the work of one artist, both online as well as offline. The work is to be visited solely by appointment. Book your own timeslot, free of charge, via info@upstreamgallery.nl. The sixth Upstream Focus is Dennis Rudolph’s Artificial_ Gods_Europe4. In this document we will delve deeper into the work as well as the artist.
Within his most recent work, the Berlin based multimedia artist combines a focus on painting with virtual and augmented reality (VR, AR). This line of work deals with an ideology of failed utopian vision and apocalypse in global history, while drawing a relationship with our contemporary image culture.
Artificial_Gods_Europe4, 2020 Oil on canvas and AR app 200 x 140
Rudolph began using the virtual reality software Google TiltBrush as a medium in 2017 as he was fascinated by the immateriality of the process. The resulting artwork is present and absent at the same time. The medium also allows Rudolph to paint three dimensionally, allowing for movement and special effects to, int turn, feedback to the oil paintings we see at first glance. Refreshingly, painting in virtual reality has changed the way Rudolph paints ‘in real life’, creating an exchange between reality and virtual reality.
Dennis Rudolph
Dennis Rudolph (1979) is a conceptual artist working in performance, video, painting, graphics and writing. His artistic practice derives its primal momentum from a melancholic reworking of the heritage of western culture, making classical historical genres available for a contemporary artistic approach. Rudolph studied at the Universität der Künste, Berlin, the Repin-Academy in St. Petersburg and the Language and Culture Institute in Beijing. Recent exhibitions include the Museum der Arbeit Hamburg; DTLA Film Festival, Los Angeles; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Moscow International Biennale for Young Art; CAC Bretigny, France; Nayerische Staatsoper, Germany; Kunstverein Arnsberg; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. Since 2014, Rudolph runs the exhibition space, residency and studio State of the Art in Berlin. Rudolph has had four solo shows at Upstream Gallery, the most recent is Fallen Angels (2019), a multimedia exhibition that combines a focus on painting with virtual and augmented reality, dealing with an ideology of failed utopian vision and apocalypse in global history, while drawing a relationship with our contemporary image culture.
Further reading Philipp Kleinmichel, The Phantasm Of Total Digital Presence, 2018. Here. Dennis Rudolph on his Portal, 2014. AV Media. Video here. Rudolph Painting “Messengers of the Ai 8� in Google TiltBrush. Recorded live in one session in mixed reality. Video here.
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