Michael Vincent Russo: Framed Mustache

Artist Statement

What gets hung on the wall? What deserves to be called “High Art”? My work seeks to explore the seemingly less desirable elements: the grotesque, the weird, the disturbing, and the humorous. To complete the human experience in Art, these other elements should have equal weight.

My work presents aspects of the human experience that are either shunned or considered banal. Most of the time portraiture seeks to explore the subject in the best possibly light. The portrait of my friend Kevin, however, shows him passed out, barely dressed, and contorted in an easy chair. What might have been a photo that stayed on my phone was elevated when I painted Kevin on a large canvas. Another example is my self-portrait which I painted the same day as a bad bike accident.

Another aspect of portraiture that I explore is the focus the viewer places on the subject. In “The Study of Landis Faces”, I chose to juxtapose two subjects each with a different intense emotion. I based this painting on two photographed test subjects from an experiment meant to measure emotional response to different stimuli. With the two subjects painted in close proximity, it is surreal because of their lack of awareness of each other. The viewer is likewise unaware of the cause of their emotions.

Artists who have influenced me include Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Chuck Close, and Banksy because of their bold styles and their wiliness to portray unusual subjects. I intend to expand on that to explore the beauty of the “imperfect”.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Framed Mustache