During his self-imposed exile (1988–2016), Fudge created paintings and digital works in secret, sharing them only with a close circle.[1][4]
Painting and sculpture
Fudge's oil paintings reinterpret Cubist and Abstract Expressionist works to interrogate painting's role in the digital age.[1] His sculptures include "Old Masters Soaps" (Rembrandt sketches on soap bars) and "Picasso Drive", a crushed Citroën C4 Picasso installed at Hastings' Observer Building.[6]
Digital art
In the early 1990s, Fudge began creating digital works after finding a Macintosh Classic II in a thrift store in Montana. He taught himself graphics software on the machine, which he shared with Angel for her poetry.[2] His digital oeuvre remains stored on obsolete macOShard drives, largely inaccessible today.[1] The Berlin-based critic An Paenhuysen described these works as "post-internet... simultaneously dated and futuristic... modern, postmodern, and post-postmodern".[7] A 2019 review noted: "Nick Fudge does a masterful digital reproduction. The Berlin artist lives out his penchant for Pablo Picasso, computers, painting and postmodernism on the laptop and with a brush. His painted pictures could just as well have been created on the computer. Only the intense gaze leads the viewer to Fudge's independently modernized Cubism. Fudge is the only exhibitor to establish the connection between PC and painting. He consistently follows tradition and logic, shows freedom of thought and creativity."[8] In 2023, he joined Sedition, releasing collections like Picasso Pizazz (2024), which reworks Picasso's paintings through digital vectors.[9]
↑Korelius-Bruder, Ellen (29 November 2019). "Speyer: Exhibition 'Digital Divide - Painting in the Age of New Media' at the Kunstverein". Die Rheinpfalz.