Rudy Lemcke is an interdisciplinary artist. He holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Louvain, Belgium.
His artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, de Young Museum, Pacific Film Archive/University Art Museum, San Francisco Art Institute, SF Camerawork, New Langton Arts, Modernism, Inc., Wadsworth Atheneum, University Art Gallery, Stoney Brook University, Grey Art Gallery, Bass Museum of Art, The Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Musee D’Art Contemporain de Montreal, Canada; and the Vargas Museum, Manila.
His recent exhibitions include: Cloud Forest / Queer Technology, Berkeley Arts Center, Berkeley, CA; The New World: Of Video Games and Museums, de Young Museum Artist’s Residency; Art, AIDS, America, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma WA; Zuckerman Museum of Art Kennesaw State University, GA; The Bronx Museum of the Arts; and Alphawood Exhibitions LLC, Chicago.
Guest Lectures:
He has been a guest lecturer and speaker at the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Cruz, Mills College, San Francisco State University, The San Francisco Art Institute, The California College of Arts and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Curatorial Practice:
He has co-curated over 20 visual arts exhibitions for the National Queer Arts Festival. As Artistic Director of Creative Labor he curated a series of exhibition called The Turning, Queerly: From Self to #Selfie (2017), A History of Violence (2018), and Precarious Lives (2019).
Social Practice
He was a founding member of the San Francisco Queer Cultural Center, he was co-founder of Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts (a collaboration between California College of the Arts and Queer Cultural Center), he was curator of Emerging Scholars Program a platform for bringing young scholars into the LGBT community, and was founder and artistic director of Creative Labor, a non-profit artists’ organization.
Education
1974 Baccalaureate in Philosophy, University of Louvain, Louvain, Belgium.
2000 Certificate in Internet Design and Technology, San Francisco State University, Multimedia Studies Program. San Francisco, California.
Grants and Honors:
2021, 2010 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art SECA award nomination
2008, 2006, 2002, San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Commission
2007 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award Finalist
2000 Robert Bell Outstanding Achievement Award, San Francisco State Multimedia Studies Program
Selected One Person Exhibitions, Screenings, and Curatorial Projects:
2023 Transit of Venus, Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose
2019
Precarious Lives. Curatorial project. SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco.
2018
A History of Violence. Curatorial project. SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco.
2017
The New World. Kimball Education Gallery, de Young Museum. Artist residency program.
From Self to #Selfie, Curatorial project. SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco.
2016
Fey Ontology. Single channel video. 3 min.
Creative Labor QIY (Queer-It-Yourself). Curatorial project. SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco.
2015
Glitterbomb. Curatorial project. SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco.
2014
(Orpheus) The Poetics of Finitude. Single channel video. 7 min.
Orpheus in the Tenderloin National Forest. A 14 part Augmented Reality Video installation. Luggage Store/Tenderloin National Forest, San Francisco. Commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission.
2013
Orpheus. Artist’s book published.
2012
Panji Tomo and the Dark Bride. Artist’s book published.
2011
Panji Tomo: The New World. Artist’s book published.
2010
The Search for Life in Distant Galaxies. On-line video exhibition commissioned by San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist’s Grants.
2007
Picturing AIDS: 1986 -1996, a retrospective. The LGBT Center, San Francisco.
City of the Future. SOMArts Gallery, San Francisco.
2004
The Butterfly Collection of Miss Emily Watson. Jon Sims Center for the Arts, San Francisco.
Light F/X. ATA Gallery, San Francisco, California.
Video Projections: Rudy Lemcke. State University of New York, Farmingdale. New York
2003
Video Projections: Rudy Lemcke. University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii
The Forgetfulness of Being (video projections). The Center. San Francisco, California
2001
Ordinary Language. Lux Gallery. San Francisco, California.
1999
Projects Room. Launch of Net Art Site. San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist project
1998
Perfect Lover. Net Art Project. QAR. San Francisco.
1997
Mourning Becomes Ecstatic. Artist CD released. San Francisco, California.
1995
Where The Buffalo Roam – A Day Without Art Installation. Artificial Gallery, San Francisco, California.
1992
Immemorial – A Day Without Art Installation; Hearst Court, DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, California.
1992
Solo Exhibition. Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, California.
1991
Modernism Gallery, San Francisco, California.
Eye Gallery, San Francisco, California.
1989
Art Museum of Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz, California.
Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, California.
1986
Richard L. Nelson Gallery, U.C. Davis, Davis, California.
Kala Institute, Berkeley, California.
1985
Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California.
Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, California.
1984
Lawson Galleries, San Francisco, California.
1982
Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, California.
1979
Diversity Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Selected Group Exhibitions, Screenings and Media Projects:
2016
(Orpheus) The Poetics of Finitude. Single channel video. 7 min. Melbourne Queer Film Festival. Melbourne, Australia.
Art, AIDS, America, Alphawood Exhibitions LLC, Chicago.
Drama Queer: Seducing Social Change, Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada
Speculative Genealogies and Precarious Futures, Alley Cat Books, San Francisco
2015
Art, AIDS, America exhibition organized by the Tacoma Art Museum,WA., Zuckerman Museum of Art Kennesaw State University, GA,; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY
(Orpheus) The Poetics of Finitude. Single channel video. 7 min. Florence Queer Festival. Florence, Italy.
(Orpheus) The Poetics of Finitude. Single channel video. 7 min. Frameline 39. San Francisco.
2013
Waterlilies and Lightning Field, screened as part of the Silence film program. Pacific Film Archive/Universtiy Art Museum, Berkeley.
To Be Determined. Video program with Tom E Brown and Farley Gwazda. New Nothing Cinema. San Francisco.
(Queerly) Wandering Archives…across the Pacific. Vargas Museum. Manila, Philippines.
Bookstore. Drift Station Gallery. Lincoln, Nebraska.
2011
Mixed Messages: A(I)DS, Art + Words. La Mama, New York.
2010
Gay Pool Party – 1968. Frameline: International LGBT Film Festival. San Francisco. The Neon: Dayton LGBT Film Festival, Dayton, Ohio. Mix Festival. New York. Video Screenings.
7,200 Drawings of Bill T. Jones. Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. Bronx, New York. Video Screening.
2009
7,200 Drawings of Bill T. Jones. Across Queer Time, The Garage, San Francisco.
2008
7,200 Drawings of Bill T. Jones. IFEA Festival, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Where The Buffalo Roam. Frameline 32, Roxie Theater, San Francisco. The Fringe Festival, The Garage, San Francisco.
The Uninvited. FLIK Festival, Washington D.C.
2007
Lightning Field. Resolutions ’07, Hallwalls, Buffalo, New York
Lightning Field. EarDrum Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
2006
7,200 Drawings of Bill T. Jones. Frameline 30, Roxie Theater, San Francisco
Unexpected Developments. Curated by Tirza Latimer, CCA, San Francisco
Hope & Healing. SomArts Gallery, San Franciso
2005
Lightning Field. Festival Némo 2005, Paris.
Immemorial. “Art, AIDS, Activism, Women,” Lesser Theater, Mills College. Oakland, California
Thom Gunn – Double Portrait. Frameline 29, Victoria Theater, San Francisco
2004
Monument/Recall, (film/video program) Camerawork Gallery, San Francisco, California.
2003
Terrain Gallery, San Francisco, California
2002
University Art Gallery, Stoney Brook University, Stoney Brook, New York.
2001
Terrain Gallery, San Francisco, California
1998
Net Art Projects. Fireworx Web Site. Berkeley, California.
1997
10th Annual Dallas Video Festival.
New Festival: New York LGBT Film Festival.
1996
Digital Artworks. San Francisco State College of Extended Learning. San Francisco, California.
Terrain Gallery, San Francisco, California.
1995
In A Different Light. University Art Museum, Berkeley, California.
Hole. Artificial Gallery, San Francisco, California.
30 Year Survey. Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, California.
Terrain Gallery, San Francisco, California.
1994
20 Year Survey: Southern Exposure. Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, California.
Homage to the Bard. Terrain Gallery, San Francisco, California.
Projections In Public. Clarion University, Clarion, Pennsylvania.
Projections In Public. San Francisco Art Commission, San Francisco, California.
Media To Metaphor: Art About AIDS. Grey Art Gallery, NYU, New York.
1993
Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, California.
Fine Art Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
McKissick Museum, The University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Florida.
Musee D’Art Contemporain de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Terrain Gallery, San Francisco, California.
1992
Sharadin Art Gallery, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, Washington.
Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York.
Artists Images of AIDS,”, The College of Marin, Marin, California.
Queer Projections,” Site Project, San Francisco, California.
1991
AIDS Timeline,” Group Material, Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
1990
AIDS Timeline – Group Material. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conneticut.
Inside/Out:Voices From Home. Walter McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California.
1989
AIDS Timeline – Group Material. University Art Museum, Berkeley, California.
1989
ACT-UP. Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, California.
Artists Against AIDS. Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, California.
Art and Self Healing-Art About AIDS. Hosted by New Langton Arts, San Francisco, California.
1988
The Third Sex. Hallwalls, Buffalo, New York.
Monument & Memorial. New Langton Arts, San Francisco, California.
1985
Photographs of Site Specific Sculptures. Lawson Galleries, San Francisco, California.
Three Sculptors. Lawson Galleries, San Francisco, California.
1984
New Works. Lawson Galleries, San Francisco, California.
1983
Rolando Castellon Gallery. San Francisco, California.
Lawson Galleries, San Francisco, California.
Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, California.
1982
Audio Art: Rudy Lemcke & Doug Hollis. KUSF Radio, San Francisco, California.
Rolondo Castellon Gallery, San Francisco, California.
50-A Bannam Street, San Francisco, California.
P.S. 1, Long Island City, New York.
University of California School of Environmental Design, U.C. Berkeley, California.
1981
Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, California.
1980
Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, California.
1979
Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Louisiana.
1978
Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Louisiana.
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