Like a sign at the entrance to a splendid nature preserve, the information is a poor abstract for the ineffable. A dream retold will come off as boring description, but to be inside the dream is inexplicably rich. (Steve Brudniak, 2023) During the 1980s Brudniak was an active member of the
Houston Alternative Art scene and represented by four different galleries during this time. 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. 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) 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. 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.” 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.” 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.
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. 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 • Webbernick, Gary.
100 Texas Sculptors. Austin, TX: Texas Sculpture Group, 2024 • Bunch, Robert Craig,
The Art of Found Objects: Interviews with Texas Artists. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2016. •
Chemeketa College Art Faculty.
Art for Everyone, Salem, Oregon: Chemeketa Press, 2016. • Gupta, Anjali ed.,
The Science of Surrealism - Assemblage Sculpture of Steve Brudniak. Austin TX: Merrid Zone, 2013 •
Del Toro, Guillermo and
Zicree, Marc.
Guillermo Del Toro - Cabinet of Curiosities. London, England: Titan Books, 2013 • 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. •
Burns, Gerald.
Shorter Poems. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, May 1993. • 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==