Russel West's works are composed of a multitude of media and supports, where colours, juxtapositions and forms combine for a lively and dynamic result.
West's intensely coloured, dripping paint artworks draw the eye into their three-dimensional labyrinths of layers and hollows, colours and patterns. West spends up to a year creating each work, repeatedly applying layers and strips of paint onto pieces of wire or nails, then allowing the work, in part, to be defined by the natural effects of gravity and the serendipitous movement of the paint. West's knowledge of paint- its weight and movement - is an understanding that could not be taught. He has personally developed this unique style over the last 25 years and there is no other artist to rival West's expertise in this ingenious creative technique.
Many of West's works are efforts to recreate the chaotic nature of human living conditions that he has witnessed, from the bomb-damaged houses of his childhood to the Kowloon walled city in Hong Kong, an unimaginably densely packed area that had grown to house fifty thousand people. Witnessing its demolition in 1993, the wreckers' ball revealed to West the complex honeycomb of ad-hoc structures, pipes and cabling within what he calls the "man nest".
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Russel WestLittle Boxes XI Blue, 2019Oil on wire on board64 x 50 cm (25 x 20 in) -
Russel WestLittle Boxes XXXV (35), 2019Oil on wire on board47 x 70 x 12 cm (18 x 27 x 5 in)
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Russel WestNeighbourhood XIII, 2019Oil on wire on board55 x 77 cm (26 x 30 in)
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Russel WestTin Flowers (X), 2019Oil on wire on board25 x 21 x 30 cm (10 x 8 x 12 in)
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Russel WestNeighbourhood VII, 2018Oil on wire on wood80 x 50 cm (31 x 20 in)
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Russel WestNeighbourhood IX White, 2017Oil on wire on wood74 x 52 cm (29 x 20 in)
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Russel WestWalking on Eggshells, 2016Oil on wire on wood150 x 95 cm (59 x 37 in)
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Russel WestLingerie VIII, 2015Oil on wire on wood45 x 122 x 25 cm (18 x 48 x 10 in)
Russel West was born and raised in Portsmouth, UK, in 1964. He lives and works on the Isle of Wight. He practiced as a graphic artist until 1989 and then moved to South East Asia, spending many years working as an artist in Hong Kong - for more than 8 years - before living in the Philippines and India and finally returning to Britain.
SOLO & GROUP SHOWS
2022
Palm Beach
Art Seattle
2021
Los Angeles Art Show
2019
AAF Hong Kong
Parallax Art Fair
London Art Fair
LA Art Show
Pop Art, Catto Gallery, London
Woolff Gallery, London
2018
Context Miami
AAF Hong Kong
Solo Exhibition Woolff Gallery, London
London Art Fair
AAF Battersea
2017
Context Miami
Art Central Hong Kong
Solo Exhibition Envie d’Art, Paris
Solo Exhibition Woolff Gallery, London
2017
Context Art Miami
Art Fair Cologne
LA Art Show
K+Y gallery, London
Woolff Gallery, London
2015
8eme Avenue, Paris
London Art Fair
Woolff Gallery, London
2014
Art Southampton
Art Wynwood
Art Miami
Woolff Gallery, London
2013
Art Southampton
Art Wynwood
Art Miami
Scope NY
Art Palm Beach
Straarta
Houston Fine Art Fair
Woolff Gallery, London
2012
Art Miami
Toronto International Art Fair
Woolff Gallery, London
2011
Art Miami
Toronto International Art Fair
Woolff Gallery, London
2010
Art Hamptons
Art Chicago
Woolff Gallery, London
2009
Art Chicago
AAF NYC
Woolff Gallery, London
2008
AAF Amsterdam
Art London
London Art Fair
2007
AAF Amsterdam
Art London
AAF Battersea
Margarate, David Lilford Fine Art
2006
Art Ireland Automn
Margarate, David Lilford Fine Art
2005
Edimburgh Art Fair
Margate Rocks Arts Festival
Margarate, David Lilford Fine Art
Whitstabble, sMOOch gallery
Brussels, Eurasia gallery
2004
London, Zizi gallery
2002
London, Vertigo gallery
2001
East 73rd gallery
2000
London, Clapham Art Centre
1998
London, Bruton Street gallery
1996
Tenri Biennale, Japan Tour
1992
FCC Hong Kong
1991
Hong Kong, Fringe gallery
COLLECTIONS
Mandarin Oriental Hotel group, Hong Kong
Sun Hung Kai property group, Hong Kong Manhattan Group, Hong Kong
Railway Arms, London
Earl’s Court Car Show, London
China Jazz, London
Red snapper book shop, London
Margate Rocks Contemporary Arts festival, UK
