PARIS.- Galerie Karsten Greve is presenting The Pattern of Surface, Georgia Russells new solo exhibition, on view from January 18 to April 5, 2025. The exhibition unveils a series of previously unseen works, through which the artist continues her exploration of the painted surface and its narrative potential.
Using a scalpel as a paintbrush, Georgia Russell questions the very notion of surface, which she describes as a space of interrogation between the visible and the invisible. Her canvases invite the viewer to look through, playing on the tension between what is perceived and what is concealed. My work is the result of accumulations of cut-outs. Repetition creates emptiness and matter. These repetitive marks create a three-dimensional surface and object. explains the artist. A meticulous, surgical creative act, exploring the boundaries between destruction and creation. The exhibition brings together paintings created from layers of cut, superimposed and painted organza. This fine fabric at once light and rigid, reveals a rich, vibrant texture, where each stratum interacts with the others to evoke unsuspected depths. The material becomes like a translucent veil whose iridescence plays infinitely with the light, evoking the elements, from the rustle of leaves in the air to the shimmer of water. In parallel, Georgia Russell presents her emblematic book- sculptures, story bearing objects metamorphosed by her blade into humanoid masks or imaginary creatures.
For the exhibition, the artist unveils a new technique, in keeping with her exploration of the surface: organza prints on canvas, using paint-impregnated fabric to create colorful imprints. The colors, pastel tones, deep blues or bright yellows that splash across Georgia Russell's canvases contribute to the characteristic visual vibration of her work: Color is a living material that, like water or wind, has a life of its own, says the artist.
Georgia Russell was born in 1974 in Elgin, Scotland. She studied Fine Art at the Grays School of Art in Aberdeen, then obtained a Masters degree from the Royal College of Art in London. In 2000, thanks to a grant from the Royal College of Art, the artist moved to Paris. Georgia Russell has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and the Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington D.C. In 2014, she was named Artist of the Year by the Art Basel fair. In 2015, the Het Noordbrabants museum (Raenschdael Foundation) in Bois-le-Duc, Netherlands, devoted a solo exhibition to her. In 2016, her work was exhibited at the Bayer Kultur Foundation in Leverkusen and the Museum Pfalzgalerie in Kaiserslautern, Germany. She is the winner of the 2020 edition of Women to watch/Paper Routes at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. Major private and public collections have acquired her work, including the aforementioned museums as well as the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Collection Pierre Bergé and the Collection Ruinart. The artist lives and works in Méru, north of Paris. She has been represented by Galerie Karsten Greve since 2010.