Experiential artist & multidisciplinary designer · Chicago
Art that changes the way a space feels.
Hey there! I’m Alec, an artist and maker who brings curiosity, play and a collaborative spirit to every project I take on. From colorful murals and fabricated sculpture to LED art, projection mapping and interactive installations, I love creating unexpected experiences that invite people to look closer and explore.
Interactive Art
Museum interactive
Fashion Remix
For an exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum, I designed the touchscreen interface and programmed an interactive experience that lets people combine patterns, colors, silhouettes and accessories inspired by works in PEM’s collection, then see their design projected directly onto a mannequin. Building on the same core approach as Design a Dress, I focused on making a wide range of choices feel intuitive, playful and visually cohesive.
I created Cosmic Donut as a grant-funded installation for Lakes of Fire, an annual celebration of art and community in Michigan. Built from laser-cut geometric wood pieces, mirrored acrylic domes and iridescent vinyl, the sculpture invites play through a custom console that lets people control its LED colors. I designed and fabricated the structure, then built and programmed the interactive lighting system.
Working with Chicago Projection Mapping to promote Cirque du Soleil’s Volta, I designed and installed three ten-foot wheat-paste murals across Chicago. Each one worked as bold black-and-white artwork during the day, then came alive after dark with projection-mapped animation and footage from the show.
Created in collaboration with Chicago Projection Mapping
I joined the planning group for LumenAura’s inaugural festival and helped turn an ambitious new idea into a real public art experience. I shaped the event vision and logistics, wrote the call for artists, worked with the Aurora Public Art Commission and designed site elements including illuminated archways. Alongside this planning and logistics work, I also participated as an artist and created the interactive installation Crystal Memories.
Aurora, IL
Event PlanningCreative DirectionFestival DesignArtist RelationsPublic Art StrategyLogistics
Seven illuminated crystals play a growing light-and-sound sequence, and people use a custom control panel to repeat it, much like a larger-than-life memory game. I designed and built the full experience, including the code, circuitry, interface, audio, lighting and acrylic forms.
Paint Roller Remix gives people a wonderfully unexpected way to explore museum art. Using modified paint rollers, visitors uncover colorful digital remixes of paintings from Cincinnati’s Taft Museum of Art. I designed the 2D graphics and digital remixes, then handled installation and onsite calibration. Created with BLINK, the project later traveled to Seattle’s Borealis Festival of Light.
For the DuPage Community Arts Festival, I designed an original illustration and painted it live while festival visitors watched the mural take shape. After dark, George Berlin Studios built on the painted mural with projection mapping and animation, extending the artwork through light and movement.
For the Chicago History Museum’s Making Mainbocher exhibition, I co-designed and programmed a touchscreen experience that lets visitors create a dress and see it projected directly onto a mannequin. With 25,000 possible combinations, the challenge was making every choice feel simple, playful and capable of producing a beautiful result. Design a Dress received a MUSE Award Honorable Mention for Interpretive Interactive Installations.
For the BLINK festival in Cincinnati, I designed and built three eight-foot kinetic sculptures called Jellyfish Jumpers, each one made to move and glow as people played with it. Their lightweight PVC and polypropylene frames could be safely transported, quickly assembled and animated by hand with a spring-loaded mechanism that mimicked a jellyfish’s movement. I finished them with custom fabric and battery-powered LED lighting. The sculptures appeared alongside a twenty-foot illuminated jellyfish dome at a festival attended by more than one million people.
As an assistant illustrator on Moonbeams, part of an animated story by George Berlin Studios, I turned rough sketches and ideas into animation-ready vector artwork and helped design seven original characters. The finished characters were projected across Bucharest’s Palace of Parliament for an audience of more than 80,000 people at iMapp Bucharest, the world’s largest projection-mapping festival.
Kinetic Canvas turns live painting into a shared performance. As an artist paints, the work is projected onto the surrounding space and visitors reshape it in real time through motion sensors, MIDI signals, a Leap Motion Controller or even a Guitar Hero controller. Experimenting with each interface showed us how the tool itself changes the way people play, from loose gestures to button presses that follow the music. We presented the installation at RE:Vision Chicago, Paradise Music & Arts Festival and Resonance Music & Arts Festival.
Florescere began as an original acrylic painting made from seven organically shaped wooden panels with a mirror at its center. I then turned it into an interactive, projection-mapped artwork with a custom controller shaped like the painting itself. People can combine different segments to reveal two distinct animation styles, making every interaction a chance to experiment and play.
For this immersive fall and Halloween festival, I designed, built and installed a collection of illuminated signs and site elements for long-term use in an exterior environment. I combined CNC and laser-cut wood and acrylic with custom LED lighting, engineering each piece to hold up outdoors throughout the season.
I assisted with the fabrication of Threaded Memories, CNC-cutting a Persian rug-inspired design into acrylic and developing a display system that could be filled with dried leaves. The materials combined leaves from trees planted by the artist’s father in Iran with others gathered from the museum grounds.
I assisted with building these custom tables for Devils Backbone Brewing Company at Washington Nationals Stadium. We constructed each table with reclaimed wood, CNC-routed the brewery logo into the surface and sealed it with resin for a polished finish that could stand up to a busy stadium setting.
Assisted and collaborated with Chris Knight
Fine WoodworkingCNC RoutingResin FinishingCustom FurnitureCommercial Fabrication
Lakes of Fire · Michigan
Jellyfish LED Installation
I created this grant-funded installation for Lakes of Fire, an annual celebration of art and community in Michigan. I 3D-modeled the form, laser-cut its mirrored acrylic pieces and worked out how the entire structure would come together. Custom-cut textiles and responsive, custom-programmed LEDs gave the finished jellyfish its light, movement and personality.
3D ModelingLaser CuttingMirrored AcrylicResponsive LEDsCreative CodingTextile Fabrication
LumenAura Light Festival · Aurora, IL
Iridescent Crystal Sculpture
Commissioned by the Aurora Public Art Commission, I created a family of luminous crystals for LumenAura. I custom-designed, 3D-modeled and fabricated this laser-cut acrylic sculpture as one of 30 pieces placed throughout the festival, helping the whole site feel connected and otherworldly.
3D ModelingLaser-Cut AcrylicSculptural FabricationPublic ArtEvent Décor
Firehouse Chicago
Decorative Wedding Arch
I designed and built this custom oak arch for Firehouse Chicago, a local event venue. Its modular construction allows it to be assembled and disassembled easily for storage while maintaining a polished finish suited to wedding settings.
Oak WoodworkingCustom DesignJoineryModular FabricationEvent DesignFine Craftsmanship
About Me Artist / Builder / Collaborator
I'm Alec Rudek, a Chicago artist, creative problem-solver and hands-on maker who helps turn ideas into memorable visual experiences.
I work with clients and other artists at many stages, from shaping an early concept to designing and producing a finished piece. Past projects include murals, paintings, interactive installations, fabricated sculpture, LED art, projection mapping, illustration and responsive technology, but I'm always curious about new formats and unexpected challenges. Whatever the medium, I bring creative thinking, practical problem-solving and a collaborative approach to finding the right way to bring a vision to life.
I'm always excited to meet new people, trade ideas and collaborate on bringing something memorable to life. Whether you have a fully formed vision or the beginning of one, I'd love to build it with you. I'm always in pursuit of art, new possibilities and meaningful ways to create together.
