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ROBERT RUSSELL
3 February - 12 March 2022
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Miles McEnery Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent paintings by Robert Russell. The artist’s inaugural exhibition at the gallery will open on 3 February at 520 West 21st Street and remain on view through 12 March 2022. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated digital catalogue featuring an essay by Naomi Lev.
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Robert RussellTeacup #26, 2021Oil on canvas60 x 60 inches
152.4 x 152.4 cm"Still life will become eminently alive. Like life itself, it will always have something new to tell you, some witchery to dazzle you with, some mystery to disclose..."
- Marcel Proust
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"The six teacup paintings in this exhibition transform the original object and source material in radical ways. First and foremost, the found teacup images are altered in dimensions to fit the large and perfectly square canvases. Furthermore, Russell fine tunes the colors and brightness of these newly enlarged objects. By altering the sizes and hues to an extreme, these impressive photorealistic objects appear larger than life: glamorous, vibrant, shiny, charismatic, and present. When viewed from a distance, the teacups look three dimensional and exuberant, but as we zoom in and physically approach them, other qualities are revealed."
- Naomi Lev in "A Delicate Life"
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Robert Russell Studio, 2022, Los Angeles, CA
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Robert RussellTeacup #28, 2021Oil on canvas50 x 50 inches
127 x 127 cm"With this series of paintings, he exposes his approach through the portrayal of light: the teacups are lit from an unidentified outer source, as the origins of these artificial bright lights go back to the teacups’ initial households. They are accentuated through the dramatic dance of shadows that each teacup/saucer duo provides, raising questions about belonging, ownership, memory, and loss. Meanwhile, the teacups and saucers’ delicate florals and soft colored pastels provide a tender way of penetrating into our softest of hearts."
- Naomi Lev in "A Delicate Life"
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Robert Russell Studio, 2022, Los Angeles, CA
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Robert Russell in his Studio, 2022, Los Angeles, CA
ROBERT RUSSELL (b. 1971, Kansas City, MO) received his Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts, Santa Clarita, CA and his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI.
Recent solo exhibitions include Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY (forthcoming); “Teacups,” Anat Ebgi Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; “A Theory of Clouds,” OSMOS Station, Stamford, NY; “Book Paintings,” Anat Ebgi Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; “Moore. More. Moore!” Anat Ebgi Gallery, Los Angeles, CA;“Lisa,” The Cabin LA, Los Angeles, CA;“Tonic Immobility,” Burrard Arts Foundation,Vancouver, BC, Canada; “Amateurs,” LA><ART, Los Angeles, CA; “Sein und Schein” (curated by Cay Sophie Rabinowitz), Big Pond Artworks, Munich, Germany; “Men Who are Named Robert Russell,” OSMOS, New York, NY; and “Men Who are Named Robert Russell,” François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
Recent group exhibitions include “Mystic Truths” (curated by Brooke Wise), NeueHouse Bradbury, Los Angeles, CA; “Good Company: Pt. 1,” Anat Ebgi Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Frieze Los Angeles, with Anat Ebgi Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; “The Conversation,” Anat Ebgi at Minnesota Street Projects, San Francisco, CA; “Perfect Day,” Roberts and Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; “The Art of Politics,” Pasadena Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA; “Loosely Bound: Launch of Material Press,” Material Press, Los Angeles, CA; “Men Named Robert Russell” (for Material Press), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA;“Manifest:Justice,” Los Angeles, CA;“P&CO,” Thomas Duncan Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; “The Dorian Project,” Second Guest Projects, New York, NY; and “Los Angeles Contemporary Tendencies” (curated by Annka Kultys), Helene Bailly Gallery, Paris, France.
Russell lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.