Rude Calderón
Rude Calderón was born in San Jose, Costa Rica, his family immigrated with him to Los Angeles, California in 1964 where he has remained all his life. Rude’s father apprenticed and worked in his uncle Manuel Zuñiga's sculpture studio, creating religious sculpture in the Spanish baroque tradition. His deep respect for materials and craftsmanship is rooted in this family history.
Stone sculpture is at the center of his work. The past twenty years have been largely devoted to this medium. His artworks show reverence towards the handling and natural appearance of materials that infer the omnipresent mystery of nature. His first public art commission from 2005, is titled: 'Leaping Fish, Nature’s Cycles', a two-piece site-specific sculpture executed out of New Mexico travertine, awarded to him by Los Angeles County Arts Commission, at Belvedere Park. This work beckons the viewer to circle the lake and the sculptures, thus embracing one in its narrative cycle of renewal. His private commission sculptures are approached with the same vision of dynamic integration that allows the natural force imprinted into the stone through millenniums, to inform the form and spirit of the idea. He has completed over ten public art commissions.
Rude’s paintings, sculptures, and prints have been widely exhibited widely, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, UCLA’s Hammer Museum, as well as FM Fine Art Gallery, Los Angeles; Frank Pictures Gallery, Santa Monica; Nationally in: Anchorage, Alaska; Texas Art Museum, Jose Galvez Gallery in Tucson, Arizona; The Mexican Fine Arts Museum in Chicago, Illinois; The Brandywine Institute in Philadelphia, PA. Internationally his work has shown in: St. Petersburg, Russia, Free Gallery; Amerika Haus Berlin, U.S. Cultural Center, Berlin, Germany; Mexico City, Tijuana and Juarez, Mexico; Santiago, Chile; Galicia, Spain; and El Museo del Niño, San Jose, Costa Rica.
