Robert Russell: Men Who are Named Robert Russell

François Ghebaly is pleased to present Robert Russell’s second exhibition with the gallery, Men Who are Named Robert Russell.

For the past few years, the artist has obsessively begun the project of painting all images of other Robert Russells that one can find on a Google search. The only criterion of inclusion in this ongoing project is that the subject bears the artist’s full name, Robert Russell, dismissing any additional information.

Presented in an unfinished grid-like installation, reminiscent of Gerhard Richter’s infamous “48 Portraits”, this body of work functions as a single piece, which the artist will continue to contribute to, throughout his life, as long as he can paint, or at the very least chooses to. Reproductions of each painting will be be uploaded to the Internet, through the gallery website and other means, and will ultimately diminish the source images. With this gesture, in the end, Robert Russell, the artist, may achieve full ownership of his own name through the means of painting.

Part of this body of work was first introduced in New York at OSMOS Address curated by Cay Sophie Rabinowitz.

Robert Russell is an artist based in Los Angeles, who received his BFA from RISD, and his MFA from Cal Arts.