At the F.A.N. Gallery over more than a decade, I've watched the evolution of the work of Philadelphia realist painter Carlo Russo, particularly the stunning still lifes he's known for. He's showing those, along with some figurative and landscape works, at F.A.N. through March 26.
Over the years, one could see Russo - who studied fashion design at the Art Institute and painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 2004 – aggressively attack complex subject matter across several paintings. He went through a phase of tackling textiles in myriad ways. Similar obsessions arose: rustic blocks of wood or discarded panel doors, odd bits of brass, glassware, feathers.
Fraidoon Al-Nakib, owner of F.A.N. Gallery, which has shown Russo's work since 2005, says he admires "the way the edges of objects have a very soft focus that makes them really stand out" in Russo's work. He also stresses the artist's painterly approach, which he contrasts with that of "hyperrealists [for whom] it's like they used a microscope to examine an object and reproduce it."
"One thing I love about Carlo's work: It almost seems as if he's playing," says Ali Rigenburg, owner and director of the Sloane Merrill Gallery in Boston, who has shown Russo's work since soon after her gallery opened in 2012. Russo, she says, is always "challenging himself to paint different textures, different surfaces, different lighting arrangements and types of objects."
Earlier in Russo's career, his work stood out for a fine representational quality with beauty beyond anything approaching photographic exactness.
"Back when I started looking at his paintings, there was a definite influence of [Chilean hyperrealist painter] Claudio Bravo in them," says art collector Ken Wenberg, who bought his first four Russo paintings four years ago. Though Wenberg says Russo's work is "definitely realistic," he, too, values the work's painterly qualities.
"He can do detail in incredible ways," Rigenburg says. "His paintings are very evocative. He's doing all these incredible textures and colors. But his paintings, it seems to me, always have a softness to them even though they are so detailed."
Russo traces a major shift in his evolution as an artist to 2008, when he started going for what he calls a "higher degree of precision and finish." Seeing himself as a set designer, he began to do line drawings of his arrangements before painting. With the added confidence from his experience and a refined approach, he says, he took on more and more dynamic compositions.
This shift is what imbues his paintings with an ever-growing warmth and nostalgia as he makes the viewer feel connected to the objects he holds sacred, while expertly guiding the eye through the painting.
Al-Nakib calls Russo equally good at still life, as well as figurative and landscape painting - "but his still lifes are what people seem to gravitate toward. Each one has a force of its own that is emanating from these paintings. It connects the viewer as well as the artist with objects in the painting."
It's not surprising to learn Russo's life has been filled with sacred objects, from items found on travels that end up in his work to the dead birds that have called upon his empathy for a continuing series of paintings.
"Really, underneath things, I'm a collector," Russo says. "When I was a kid, I collected my toys and I treasured them. I took such amazing care of them.
"And then, one day when I outgrew them, I gave them to my brother, and he promptly destroyed them all in a short amount of time, all these things I treasured and took care of."
"I have no physical attachment to any of these objects in this painting, but it pulls at me," Rigenburg says. "It calls to me."
Resource: http://articles.philly.com
Over the years, one could see Russo - who studied fashion design at the Art Institute and painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 2004 – aggressively attack complex subject matter across several paintings. He went through a phase of tackling textiles in myriad ways. Similar obsessions arose: rustic blocks of wood or discarded panel doors, odd bits of brass, glassware, feathers.
Fraidoon Al-Nakib, owner of F.A.N. Gallery, which has shown Russo's work since 2005, says he admires "the way the edges of objects have a very soft focus that makes them really stand out" in Russo's work. He also stresses the artist's painterly approach, which he contrasts with that of "hyperrealists [for whom] it's like they used a microscope to examine an object and reproduce it."
"One thing I love about Carlo's work: It almost seems as if he's playing," says Ali Rigenburg, owner and director of the Sloane Merrill Gallery in Boston, who has shown Russo's work since soon after her gallery opened in 2012. Russo, she says, is always "challenging himself to paint different textures, different surfaces, different lighting arrangements and types of objects."
Earlier in Russo's career, his work stood out for a fine representational quality with beauty beyond anything approaching photographic exactness.
"Back when I started looking at his paintings, there was a definite influence of [Chilean hyperrealist painter] Claudio Bravo in them," says art collector Ken Wenberg, who bought his first four Russo paintings four years ago. Though Wenberg says Russo's work is "definitely realistic," he, too, values the work's painterly qualities.
"He can do detail in incredible ways," Rigenburg says. "His paintings are very evocative. He's doing all these incredible textures and colors. But his paintings, it seems to me, always have a softness to them even though they are so detailed."
Russo traces a major shift in his evolution as an artist to 2008, when he started going for what he calls a "higher degree of precision and finish." Seeing himself as a set designer, he began to do line drawings of his arrangements before painting. With the added confidence from his experience and a refined approach, he says, he took on more and more dynamic compositions.
This shift is what imbues his paintings with an ever-growing warmth and nostalgia as he makes the viewer feel connected to the objects he holds sacred, while expertly guiding the eye through the painting.
Al-Nakib calls Russo equally good at still life, as well as figurative and landscape painting - "but his still lifes are what people seem to gravitate toward. Each one has a force of its own that is emanating from these paintings. It connects the viewer as well as the artist with objects in the painting."
It's not surprising to learn Russo's life has been filled with sacred objects, from items found on travels that end up in his work to the dead birds that have called upon his empathy for a continuing series of paintings.
"Really, underneath things, I'm a collector," Russo says. "When I was a kid, I collected my toys and I treasured them. I took such amazing care of them.
"And then, one day when I outgrew them, I gave them to my brother, and he promptly destroyed them all in a short amount of time, all these things I treasured and took care of."
"I have no physical attachment to any of these objects in this painting, but it pulls at me," Rigenburg says. "It calls to me."
Resource: http://articles.philly.com
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