Robert Russell in studio by Chad Unger. Photo courtesy of Anat Ebgi and the artist.Artist: Robert Russell
Robert Russell is a conceptual painter whose work returns to ideas of memory, iconography, and mortality in a personal painting language that is attentive to beauty, the history of art, and the role of photography. For the past several years he has painted still lifes of teacups and Allach Porcelain figurines. His latest series, named Stateless Objects depict Judaica—kiddish cups, havdalah sets, challah platters—now housed in public or private collections, where Jewish communities flourished for centuries across North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Removed from their original domestic and ritual contexts, immortalized and remembered in Russell’s oil paintings, these works raise questions about cultural ownership, memory, and the human role in its preservation and remembrance. Just as the dispersal of Judaica reflects histories of exile and rupture, Russell’s porcelain vessels and figurines carry the weight of history—objects suspended in time, painting not to restore the past, but to acknowledge it, to call it to the present. Russell’s practice is an invocation, a sanctification of what remains.
Robert Russell (b. 1971, Kansas City, MO) completed his MFA at The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Valencia, CA and his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Providence, RI. Russell has had solo exhibitions at galleries including Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA;The Cabin, Los Angeles, CA; Burrard Arts Foundation, Vancouver, B.C., Canada; LA><ART, Los Angeles, CA; François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; BIg Pond Artworks, Munich, Germany; and OSMOS Station, Stamford, NY. His work has been exhibited in group shows including Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, CA; Material Press MOCA LA, Los Angeles, CA; M+B Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA; and Gavlak Projects, Palm Beach, FL. Russell lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
(https://anatebgi.com/artists/robert-russell/)
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Moderator: Dr. Benjamin Lima
Ben Lima is the founding editor of Athenaeum Review and host of the Athenaeum Review podcast.
His writing on contemporary art has appeared in numerous publications, including the Dallas Morning News, Image Journal, Art Journal, Might Be Good, Pastelegram, and Art Lies, and he has curated and written catalog essays for Gallery 12.26, SITE131, Erin Cluley Gallery, Conduit Gallery, the SMU Pollock Gallery, Deep Ellum Windows, Grey Matters Gallery, The Dallas Biennial, The Texas Biennial, The Latino Cultural Center, the Gallery at UTA, the SP/N Gallery at UT Dallas, and the Wilcox Space. He was nominated for the Rabkin Prize in art writing.
His research on post-1945 German art at archives in Berlin, Cologne, Stuttgart and elsewhere was supported by a fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). He formerly taught art history at the University of Texas at Arlington, including courses on European, Latin American and U.S. modern art, as well as film, photography and architecture.
Education
PhD, History of Art, Yale University
MA, Visual Studies, University of California at Irvine
AB, History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
(https://arthistory.utdallas.edu/lima/)
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Sabbath Teapot #2, 2024; Oil on canvas; 24 x 20 inches / 61 x 50.8 cm
Rambue Yahrzeit Candle, 2025; Oil on canvas; 30 x 40 inches / 76.2 x 101.6 cm
Galician Kiddush Cup, 2024; Oil on canvas; 24 x 20 inches / 61 x 50.8 cm
Robert Russell Teacups, 2021, Anat Ebgi, Installation view
Teacup #7, 2020; Oil on canvas; 60 x 72 inches / 152.4 x 182.9 cm
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