Sean Russell

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Photosynthesis

An Exhibition of Recent Artwork
Location: Debra March Center of Excellence Art Gallery
Dates: Friday, March 29, 2024 – Saturday, September 28, 2024
Hours: 8am – 5pm M-F, Closed Saturday, Sunday and all National Holidays

The CSN Art Galleries are excited to announce the opening of their newest art gallery in collaboration with the CSN Henderson Campus and the City of Henderson. Now open at the Debra March Center of Excellence is an exhibition of collage and photographic based artwork by CSN Program Coordinator and Professor of Art & Art History, Sean Russell. “Photosynthesis: An Exhibition of Recent Artwork by Sean Russell,” officially opens, Friday, March 29, 2024, and will run through Saturday, September 28, 2024, at the Art Gallery in the City of Henderson’s Debra March Center of Excellence.

Mixed Media on Panel, various sizes, 2022 - 2024

The Art Box Podcast Interview

Listen to our conversation about my history, artwork, and Las Vegas.

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Splatterburst

SPRING 2024

Guns, desert, targets, flowers, mod podge, and lacquer

Wash Cycle

NOVEMBER 2023

I have lived in Las Vegas for over twenty years, most of it spent in my current home, which borders the Las Vegas Wash, slightly north of the Clark County Wetlands Park. The Wash is the Las Vegas Valley’s urban river system, fed by stormwater, reclaimed water, urban runoff, and various other sources that pass through this natural filter on the way to Lake Mead. As such, the Wash is also home to a variety of bird and animal species, many of which I see and hear over my back wall throughout the day and night.

For this project, I set up multiple night vision trail cameras in the Wash, down amongst the brush, strapped to trees, and enshrined by rocks. Over the last few months, the cameras have captured thousands of images, mostly of the wind blowing a tree branch around - but sometimes, there would be a shadowy movement across some of the frames, or a flash of white eyes in the blurry foliage. I can see the captured images on my phone very soon after they occur, so it was always a joy to get a notification telling me there was a new image to view. What was captured was the daily movements of coyotes, rats sneaking around as soon as the sun went down, tons of rabbits, and families of raccoons. Common animals just living their lives over my wall. In early September of 2023, heavy rain hit Vegas, and a rapid flash flood ripped through the Wash – I lost two cameras that day. All parts of the cycle.

The artwork I created is based on and made from these captured images, and other images I snapped after the flood. I use a phototransfer technique to affix the printed digital photos to panels or other surfaces. As part of this process, I scrub away the white pulp of the paper leaving the image somewhat translucent. The pieces are collaged together using various scraps of wood I’ve amassed over the years. Much like the Wash itself, the artwork is made of built-up layers and accumulated detritus, with pops of color and hints of life.

“This program/project was supported, in part, by the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the state of Nevada.” -- Nevada Arts Council | (nvartscouncil.org)

Thanks to the Lost City Museum for hosting my exhibit:
Home | Lost City Museum

Individual Artworks - all 25.5"x25.5"x3" // Mixed Media // 2023

Recent Misc. Work

2022 - present

Coots!

Coot Scootin' Boogie

Coot Scootin' Boogie (detail)

Under the Boardwalk

Under the Boardwalk (detail)

Just Give Up

AIBOHPHOBIA

In A Regal Age, Ran I

Solo Gigolos

I Don't Know, Something About Landscapes

HUMAN TARGET

Some Pigeons I Know

Fall 2022 - Sahara West Library, Las Vegas, NV

Spring 2022 - College of Southern Nevada
Artspace Gallery, Las Vegas, NV

Some Pigeons I Know is a group show exhibiting a wide range of media, including; poetry, painting, sculpture, ceramics, fiber arts, musical art, and photography. The show will focus on pigeon/human parallels and to a greater degree discuss humanities unintended influence on natural selection.

14"x13", Mixed Media on Panel

13"x19", Mixed Media on Panel

18"x18", Mixed Media on Panel

Vesuvius

2022 - Ongoing

Since I began studying the history of art I have been infatuated with the frescos of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The now Italian cities were covered in volcanic ash by the explosion of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 AD and not unearthed until over 1500 years later. When unearthed, archeologists found well preserved frescos depicting mythological imagery, portraits, and scenes of daily life. I particularly enjoy the simple still life images of common items found in these ancient frescos. I noticed that my mixed media artwork has a similar visual aesthetic to some of these frescos, particularly in the way the image is fused and eroded into the panel and surface.

Cuties (Blue)

Cuties (Pink)

Burnt Offering for the Enrolled Agent

Pompeii I

Pompeii II

Back to the Wetlands

2022-Ongoing

36"x36", Acrylic, Glitter, Transfer and Polyurethane on Panel

Make Lead

2022 - Ongoing

This is a series of mixed media on panel photographic artworks which consists of images of the desert southwest taken while flying back from Minnesota to Las Vegas. The photos are transferred on to a heavily textured and worn surface, referencing the tangibility of the landscape. The artwork juxtaposes the light, airiness of the viewpoint with the rough physicality of the southwest.

Various sizes, Mixed Media on Panel, 2022

Bouquet of Pheasants

College of Southern Nevada
Fine Arts Gallery
December 2021

Bouquet of Pheasants is a collection of new, mixed media, but predominantly photographic artwork, loosely concerning portraits of flowers growing my backyard, trips to visit family in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and imagery associated with hunting and firearms. The pieces are united by themes of beauty and destruction, growth and decay, and the reflect the interconnected strata that makes up our lives.

Gus

Your Condolences

Supernova

Fine Feathered Friend

Installation

Current, Ongoing

Various works

Studio Practice

various processes and media

2020-2022

mollusca

Studio Practice

phototransfer on panel, 16-30in sq.

Bouquet of Fission

2020-2021
through January '21

part of the Windows On First public art project
City Hall, Las Vegas, Nevada
(3) 131"x96"

Public Art

Read All About It!

Don't get a parking ticket!

City of Las Vegas site

Bouquet of Fission references the visual and metaphorical relationships between a bouquet of flowers and an atomic blast and serves as a reminder of Las Vegas’ past and its blossoming present and future.

Bouquet of Folly

2020-2021

Whitney Library, Las Vegas, Nevada
West Charleston Library, Las Vegas, Nevada
Laughlin Library, Laughlin, Nevada
East Las Vegas Library, Las Vegas, Nevada
Clark County Library, Las Vegas, Nevada

Exhibition

2017

Zap 9 - Barn Box
Lone Mountain, Las Vegas, Nevada

Public Art

Zap 9 Barn Box

Clark County's Zap program is bringing public art to the Lone Mountain region of Las Vegas. Using utility boxes as canvases, 15 local artists, selected through a juried process, will design and paint their original art, on-site. The 45 boxes to be painted are located primarily along Craig Road, Lone Mountain Road and Durango Drive, and around the Mountain Crest and Lone Mountain Regional Parks. My Zap 9 box is based on the American Barn Quilt tradition.

2016

Infrared
Various Libraries, Las Vegas area

Exhibition

Early in 2015 I purchased a modified digital camera from which the visible spectrum filter had been removed, giving the camera the ability to capture both ultraviolet and infrared light. Most digital cameras have this filter to better process the light humans can see, thus ignoring the light outside of our visible spectrum. I altered this camera further by using various lens filters that exclude certain wavelengths of color.

With my modified camera I captured a variety of images during a family trip to my in-law’s lake home in Big Lake, Minnesota, on hikes throughout Red Rock National Conservation Area in Nevada, and around my home in Las Vegas, Nevada. I chose these locations due to the varieties of light and color each landscape provided. Images from these locations were then juxtaposed and transferred to wood panels using a gel transfer process. The photo transfer process creates an end product that looks vintage and aged, which contrasts the relatively high level of technology that went into the creation of the image in the first place.

2015

South of Town
Clark County Government Center Rotunda Gallery

Exhibition

South of Town is an exhibit of abstract ceramic forms situated among large, landscape photos. To create the ceramic forms, Russell shot 25 lb blocks of wet clay with various firearms. The bullet-pierced aftermath was then put through a customized kiln-firing process and finished with a metallic glaze known as Palladium. The artworks address an undesignated shooting location on public land about 5 miles south of Las Vegas. Littered with old cans, bottles, tires, washing machines and cars, the area is used by people shooting in all directions while others scavenge for metal, ride dirt bikes and let their children and animals roam free. Fascinated with the shooting spot, Russell uses "South of Town" to share with others the uniqueness and absurdity of the site.

2015

Red Rock Canyon Artist-In-Residence
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

Exhibition / Public Art

These pieces were created for an exhibition at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area visitor's center as part of their Artist-in-Residence program. The images used in the photo transfer process originally come from automated game cameras I set up around the NCA, as well as landscape photos I captured on the scenic loop drive. The goal of the work is to juxtapose the images of Red Rock that the majority of tourists see with images of what really goes on at night and in the early mornings.

2015

Zap 7 - Dazzle Box
Russell and Maryland, Las Vegas, NV

Public Art

Twenty (20) artists, selected by an independent review panel, will be contracted by Clark County Parks and Recreation to paint art on utility boxes for the ZAP 7 project on Maryland Parkway, the latest in a series of County public art projects that began in 2005. The artists will each paint a group of utility boxes along the parkway from Desert Inn Road to Russell Road, for a total of approximately ninety-six (96) utility boxes.

2013

Unanimous Decision
Winchester Cultural Center, Las Vegas, NV

Exhibition

Unanimous Decision is based on a series of photographs taken during early morning walks at the Clark County Wetlands Park. I can often be found at the Wetlands Park right before sunrise, strolling through the park and mentally clearing my head for the day. I was inspired by the thick, lush, interwoven flora and light effects created by the rising sun. The entangled branches and leaves of the numerous plant species found at the Wetlands Park motivated me to paint expressionistically, and create a body of work that emulates the density and natural beauty of the park. In the end, the “Unanimous Decision” of the exhibit refers to the filtering process I went through in regards to the subject for this series of paintings.