Janet Rutkowski

Biography

Janet Rutkowski was born on Staten Island and attended Manhattan's High School of Art and Design. After some years away from art she returned to it, working in the studio of Arturo Di Modica, learning stone carving at Art Life Craft Studios, and taking up welding at the Sculpture Center. For a time she made functional metalwork such as furniture, railings and gates before concentrating on sculpture and public art. She describes a career of about 35 years across many styles and media.

Steel is her main material, much of it found or reclaimed, and she finishes it in many ways: rusted, patinated, brushed or torched. Her subjects come from ancient cultures, myth, fantasy and science fiction, and she speaks of wanting each piece to carry a felt presence. Series such as 'Talismanic Prophecies' continue this interest.

Rutkowski has shown at the Florence Biennale, Bethel Woods (where her 'Summer of Love' series was installed for a year), Studio 80 + Sculpture Grounds in Connecticut, the Rockland Center for the Arts and River Hook Sculpture Park. She is a partner in RSOAA / The Royal Gallery in Williamsburg, where she has curated group shows, and a member of the Sculptors Guild. She lives in Brooklyn and works in Barryville. Art Spiel reports that co-curating 'Reclamation' reconnected her with artists she knew from the Williamsburg and Greenpoint scene of the 1980s; she called the show's process 'alchemical.'

Practice. Welded sculpture in found and reclaimed steel, variously rusted, patinated, brushed or flame-torched, plus works on paper; themes from myth, ancient cultures, science fiction and the metaphysical.