Artists
****
Carl David Ruttan
Torn Passages Series
True Canadian (left)
Tower of Heaven (right)
24.5” x 18.5” each
archival digital print on polypropylene
2009
A consummate traveler, Carl David Ruttan makes collages with graphic ephemera he finds along the way: Chinese cigarette cartons, Indian candy wrappers, torn bits of music posters from the street. Working in a rented room in Berlin, a youth hostel in Switzerland, on the beach in India, or his apartment in Montreal, Ruttan spreads out the fragments and brings the bits and pieces together in composition. When done, he slides the small 3.5”x2.5” collages into a plastic sleeve. Once home, Ruttan scans them, enlarges the image, and makes a print in edition of three. The final image presents a seamless photographic print that is akin to photomontage.
Carl David Ruttan was born in 1976 in Oshawa, Ontario. He studied fine art at the University of Ottawa, completing his Bachelors of Fine Art in 2000. He traveled through Taiwan, India, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan before settling in Montreal where he studied etching and printmaking at the Saidye Bronfman School for the Arts. Ruttan is an active member of both Atelier Circulaire and Articule, artist-run centres in Montreal.
Like many contemporary artists, Ruttan’s art making practice includes many mediums. He makes small dry-point etchings and woodblock prints that offer a unique aesthetic and a simple, accessible style. He takes macro photographs of found objects, urban scenes, and textures of various sorts— paint, plywood, brick—and blows them up. He has made some sculpture and he paints with acrylic on canvas. Yet, it is in his collage work that the dominant themes of his art practice come together.
<<<PREVIOUS ARTIST | MAIN PAGE | NEXT ARTIST>>>
