Russell Young: Molotov Cocktail Boy
British-American Pop artist Russell Young is known for his compelling, larger-than-life silkscreen paintings appropriated from history and popular culture. Like pop artists past and present, Russell reinvents sometimes brutal images as a narrative on social, political and cultural dynamics.
“His large silkscreen paintings of popular culture evidence a creative individual steeped in contemporary glamour, his work expressive of the shock and awe of fame, or those in close proximity to its glare and grit.” ~ John Finlay, Art Historian
Russell is interested in secrets, those we keep, those we share, and those we are unwilling to confront. A rose petal might, upon a closer look, be riddled with holes.
It is these holes Russell’s work illuminates. The holes of trauma, of carnal desire, of memory and history. Through them, he allows us to see vistas. In these vistas there are no expectations, no rules. He roams wherever he wishes, always looking for a space in which to be free, to experiment, to examine life and death. They are lands from which he resurrects dead dreams and crafts alternative ones.
Molotov Cocktail Boy is a great example of this narrative.
