EXHIBITIONS

VIVIEN RUSSE | *Networks.* Installation image. On view through August 4th. PHOTO CREDIT: Luc Demers.

VIVIEN RUSSE
Networks
June 29th - August 4th

Vivien Russe's gem-like paintings fuse imagery from Nature, architecture, geometry, and world religions to explore humanity's impact on the environment. The beauty of her work magnifies a much deeper message.

"The need to recognize the interconnection of all life is more critical than ever." - Vivien Russe, 2024

“Vivien Russe's exhibition Networks is a triumph -- it builds on her familiar themes, attesting to years of meditative response to the issues of our time, but is fresh and contemporary, elevating her long-established strengths of concentrated vision, eloquent silence and tranquil reflection to a startling new level, so rich and organic in its unity that it achieves the impact of a single great burst of urgent creation. It shouldn't be missed by anyone who's interested in what visual art can bring to our most challenging conversations about the condition of our planet and humanity's future.” - Renowned scholar and writer N.J. Slabbert

Receive a list of available works upon request.

EXHIBITION IMAGES - INDIVIDUAL ARTWORKS

EXHIBITION IMAGES - GALLERY INSTALLATION

ARTIST STATEMENT

“Cedars or spiders are always busy doing things for themselves, in their own interest.” - Carl Safina

The climate crisis and the damaging effects of human activity on the natural world - our planet - are at the root of my recent body of work. The ideas grew out of two very different trips, one to Acadia National Park in 2018 and the other to view Renaissance paintings in Italy in 2019. While a non-believer, I have always felt the power and beauty of art inspired by religion of all kinds. These works can represent some of our highest aspirations for finding meaning. At the same time, the natural beauty of Acadia was still fresh in my mind. In the Renaissance works in Italy, most of what was depicted as divine was of human form. Trying to address how our human needs are increasingly in conflict with the natural world, I wanted to flip this equation, and put nature in a divine space, giving it more weight. Why is lichen less holy than St. Peter??

Since starting this work, the increased environmental degradation from political divisions, capitalism, population displacement, and war has been deeply discouraging. The need to recognize the interconnection of all life is more critical than ever. There are lessons to be learned from many non-Western cultures and religions. Science is teaching us that the natural world is more interrelated than we’ve previously understood. For example, the ways fungal networks affect the life of plants and trees and have a unique role in regeneration. Technology is changing life on Earth in ways impossible to grasp. The outcome is unknown, but it’s clear, all the players are fighting for survival. These paintings are a reflection on this drama.

- Vivien Russe, 2024

ARTIST STATEMENT - QUOTE CONTEXT

An excerpt from Carl Safina’s book Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe

“Machines do not create conditions suitable for their functioning, do not create themselves, make their own parts, do not self-propagate, do not form communities, do not self-evolve or self-diversify. A more basic difference distinguishes the living. Living things have purpose: to stay alive, to create more life, to adapt to a world that likewise adapts to their presence in the world. Cedars or spiders are always busy doing things for themselves, in their own interest. No machine has purpose or self-interest. A machine has merely a use. Only aliveness creates conditions for meaning.”

BIO

Vivien Russe was born in Seattle, Washington, and spent her childhood in Cleveland, Ohio. From an early age, she spent time at the Cleveland Museum of Art, immersed in their Asian art collection. The simplicity of form and pattern, the shallow narrative spaces, and the attention to the details of human life and nature shaped her visual understanding.

Torn between her love of the visual arts and the sciences, she chose a liberal arts education at Radcliffe College. Though the art history program was exceptional and formative, studio art was mostly confined to aspects of design. After graduating and recognizing a compelling interest in studio art, she went on to the Boston School of the Museum of Fine Arts, graduating with a degree in printmaking.

She then moved to an island in Casco Bay near Portland, Maine. With no access to a printing press, she developed her painting skills - mainly landscapes - inspired by the location. Ten years later, moving back to the mainland, she found a vibrant community of artists, an experience that had a major influence on her development. Feeling confined by landscape painting, she went into a period of intense experimentation. Though turbulent, this experience helped her find imagery and a voice that more closely expressed her unique vision.

In 1991, she was awarded the Bingham Prize to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, which helped facilitate this growth. Though primarily a painter, she became President of Peregrine Press, allowing her to return to her earlier interest in printmaking. 2012-14 was her first experience working on a collaborative installation, ‘Ant Farm, The Nexus of Art and Science’, which was exhibited extensively throughout New England.

Russe has shown work throughout the state of Maine and in other parts of the country. Her work is in many private collections, locally and overseas. She has been represented by Frost Gully Gallery, June Fitzpatrick Gallery and Aucocisco Gallery. She is currently represented by Sarah Bouchard Gallery. She lives and works in South Portland, Maine.

PRESS

* CORRECTION: The artwork pictured in the Art New England review is a 12” x 12” painting created in 2024. PHOTO CREDIT: Luc Demers.