Ghost Ship Wreck, 2012 / Epson Ultrachrome HDR Print scratched with a razor / 40 x 60 inches / Permanent Collection Contemporary Museum of Art San Diego
The Falls I (Triptych), 2015 / pigment print scratched with razor / 36 x 72 inches
The Falls II (Triptych), 2015 / pigment print scratched with razor / 29 x 80 inches
01 Ghost Story (Series), 2010 / ultrachrome print placed in compost bin / 19 x 16 inches
Collection of Sweeney Art Gallery at UC Riverside
Runaway Diptych, 2010 / 2 panels, Ultrachrome print scratched with a razor / each panel: 36 x 24 inches
Collection of the Brooklyn Art Museum
Fingerprint, 2013 / Epson Ultrachrome Print scratched with razor / 21 x 33 inches
Fox, 2013 / Ultrachrome print scratched with a razor / 22 x 34 inches
Untitled (5 pieces, as installed at Hammer Museum), 2009 / Epson Ultrachrome Print scratched with razor, dirt / Each image 24 x 36 inches
Private Collections
Untitled (Interior), 2010 / Epson Ultrachrome Print run over by car / 24 x 36 inches
Private Collection
Dissonance, Coincidence & Errant Gradations of Light
2012 / One of a kind book, case binding, Phpotograph and drawing inset into cover, 53 fountain pen drawings illuminating an original text / 50 x 30 inches (open) / excerpt view
Framing Exercise, 2011 / Epson Ultrachrome Print scratched with a razor, spray paint/ 24x36 inches
Untitled (Sniper), 2006 / Epson Ultrachrome Print scratched with a razor / 8 x 10 inches
Runaway, 2010, / One of a kind book, case binding, marbled boards and endpapers, 31 fountain pen drawings illuminating an original text, 36 x 24 inches (open), excerpt view
Private Collection
Untitled, 2009 / Epson Ultrachrome Print scratched with razor / 24 x 72 inches
Private Collection
Dealing less with the supernatural than the psychosomatic, Christopher Russell rouses ghosts. Within his scratched photographs, fractured glass panes, and hazy metallic paints, there are haunting recollections - the kind of outlier memories that plague our psyche well after childhood. Through a purposefully repressive fog, we habitually revisit the monsters of our innermost mentality, and find ourselves the protagonist of a lifelong plight - a cinematic tale evocatively illustrated by Russell's eerie ships and spectral trees. Like a folkloric odyssey into a cognitive web, his mixed-media works and installations traipse through places of fragility and wistfulness; evidence of the divine and unsettling encounters inherent to our complex mortality.
Russell (b. 1974) received his M.F.A. from the Art Center College of Design (CA). In 2009, he produced a solo exhibition at the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, CA). He has also been featured in group exhibitions at the Tokyo Institute of Photography (Japan), The Norton Museum (West Palm Beach, FL), Armory Center for the Arts (Los Angeles, CA), White Columns (New York, NY) De Appel Arts Center (Netherlands) Oakland Museum (Oakland, CA), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA), among others. He has published numerous critical articles in addition to being a featured subject of positive review by the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Huffington Post, Artillery, Frieze, and ArtForum, among others. Russell is also known for his 'zine Bedwetter. His first novel is Sniper, and other books include Budget Decadence (2nd Cannons Publications), Pattern Book (Insert Blanc Press) and Landscape (Kolapsomal Press)–which was included in Martin Parr's The Photobook: A History Volume III (Phaidon). His work is included in the collections of numerous public institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art - University of Oregon, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Hammer Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, to name a few.
