ART CITIES: Paris- Georgia Russell

Georgia Russell’s work has always been constructed around notions of rhythm and repetition – in both gesture and form – through which the artist, plunging herself into the minutiae of cutout, brings out the potential energy of the material. In her new work, the time is that of nature but also that of painting. Having investigated the possibilities offered by the old photographs and books, Georgia Russell is now engaged in a reflection on color and abstraction.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Karsten Greve Archive

This turning point is marked by a return to traditional materials, such as the canvas and the paintbrush, although Georgia Russell’s artistic process, which never abandons the idea of creative destruction, remains anchored in her cutout technique. The artist’s canvases are the result of a painting challenge that starts with the choice of colous and culminates in the creation of landscapes, being based solely on intuitive memories.  For Georgia Russell’s solo exhibition “Cells of Light”, the French writer and editor, Graeme Bezanson composed a poem that echoes her recent works, which is displayed at the gallery for this occasion. The itinerary of the exhibition offers visitors a stroll between enlightenment and questions regarding the current world, in which the natural and the artificial are more enmeshed than ever. “Cells” are organic, living tissue – life. The cells of hives. But also celluloid, the first plastic material invented in 1856. Then there are monks’ cells, small rooms, places of confinement for prisoners. Or, on the contrary, a cell can refer to a group of individuals. Lastly, the word is present in ‘cell phone’, a device that accompanies us everywhere, all the time, from the crowds of cities to remote locations. From this word stem as many possibilities as differences. “I cut and slash the paper and play with gradations of shades, rhythmed by the motions of my incisions, through which light filters in,” Georgia Russell said of her work. By incising surfaces, she creates a mirage between reality and illusion. From minute, repetitive cuts, protean works are born, the abstraction of which calls upon the subconscious and flirts with the imagination. Georgia Russell’s surgically precise gestures require mastery and patience. “I change blades every five minutes, because any more and they are no longer efficient enough”.  Recently, the artist introduced a new matter into her work: organza, a synthetic fabric made from silk, industrially dyed with a hypnotic iridescence, as resistant as it is fragile. The slashing effect of the scalpel on both layers of the translucent fabric pushes optical confusion to the extreme and amplifies the lightness and delicacy of her works. The boundary between solidity and void fades, leaving the eye to lose itself in the movement and light. With Georgia Russell, incising and cutting thus become creative, and not destructive, acts.  In this configuration, the void makes the bright flashes of color essential to animating canvases perceptible, just as windows traversed by light project their colorful image, created through human skill. Inspired by nature and its incessant metamorphoses, the artist confronts reality and imbues her work with her most private thoughts on the changes of nature as it is rocked by human activity. In this exhibition, Georgia Russell demonstrates a new maturity in her approach. Her universe adapts to change while preserving wonder and poetry. The cells incised in the canvas or organza let in light and air, which cannot be contained, becoming true “Cells of Light”.

Photo: Georgia Russell, Untitled, 2022, Acrylic and gouache on canvas 116 x 148 x 9 cm, verso lower right signed and dated, Photo: Gilles Mazzuferri, © Georgia Russell, Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve Köln, Paris, St. Moritz

Info: Galerie Karsten Greve, 5 rue Debelleyme, Paris, France, Duration: 9/9-16/10/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-18:30, Sat 10:00-18:00, https://galerie-karsten-greve.com/