The Pattern of Surface
Galerie Karsten Greve Paris
Tuesday – Saturday 10 am – 7 pm
Opening
on Saturday, January 18, 2025, 5pm - 9pm
in presence of the artist
Galerie Karsten Greve is pleased to present The Pattern of Surface, Georgia Russell’s new solo exhibition, on view from January 18th to April 5th, 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 consisting of cut, superimposed and painted layers of organza. This fine fabric, which is simultaneously light and stiff, reveals a rich, vibrant texture in which each layer interacts with the others and evokes unexpected depths. The material acts like a translucent veil, its iridescence playing endlessly with the light and 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, objects that carry stories and are transformed by their blade into humanoid masks or imaginary creatures.
For the exhibition, the artist introduces a new technique that corresponds to her exploration of the surface: organza prints on canvas, in which she uses paint-impregnated fabrics to create colorful imprints. The colors, pastels, 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. Trained at the Grays School of Art in Aberdeen then at the Royal College of Art in London, she moved to Paris in 2000. She has taken part in numerous international exhibitions, notably at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and the Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington. In 2014, Georgia Russell was named “Artist of the Year” by the Art Basel fair. She is the winner of the 2020 edition of Women to watch/Paper Routes at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington). Important private and public collections including the above-mentioned museums, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Pierre Bergé Collection and the Ruinart Collection. The artist lives and works in Méru, France. She is represented by Galerie Karsten Greve since 2010.