Russell Boyle - Artist

Russell Boyle

Learn more about Russell Boyle from Brooklyn, NY - United States.

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Joined

2017

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Originally from Detroit, MI, I am currently a Brooklyn based mixed media artist investigating the conflict humans experience as inevitable aging beings entrapped in assigned gender roles. Fascinated and frustrated by the proposed definitions of 'men' and 'women' combined with the horror, beauty and inevitable decay of youth in an increasingly violent society, I am on a psychological mission to excavate the surviving spirit that lies beneath the mortal facades created by these conditions. Often rendering individuals in loose portraiture as sexless and crackled doll heads or mannequins, I am motivated by the idea that the human body and its psyche is resilient as it is fragile, akin to the plastic shell of a vintage composition doll longing to be cherished for what it is yet discarded over time for what it can never become to the arms that once held it so near. Tossed aside, weary from time spent up in the attic or locked in a closet, these illustrative dolls crave affection, understanding and acceptance regardless if dressed in Barbie couture or G.I. Joe fatigues.

This is a not so accidental metaphor as art making has been an instinctual, fundamental means of communication for me since I was a small child ridiculed for not behaving in the manner that was expected of me. I acted out in anger to escape the suppression of my natural inclinations by imagining that the icicle clusters formed on the backs of bushes in the Midwest were magical fortresses teeming with a puny, yet vital civilization. It was in my learned nature to at once became the fierce giant who relished in tearing those fortresses down and yet it was my sincerest longing to be the skilled architect who could enhance the frozen system and reshape it as it was meant to be; powerful, eternal, warm and free from the monster that wanted to possess people like me.

Incensed and devastated by the massacre that took 49 lives senselessly in Orlando on June 12, 2016 I completed a tribute in graphite honoring those fallen in addition to the new work I had already begun. It was the beginning of my long journey out of an adolescent darkness into a new kind of light. Recognizing myself in this tragedy, there was a definitive departure from the little boy who felt he had to become a monster in order to defeat one. I had to repair that broken castle for myself and in doing so I ended up reaching others who were also in need of healing. The giant had been replaced by the architect and this architect was bound for reconstruction. Though I will perhaps forever return to investigate what I first started with the Dollhead Drawings. I have been intrinsically changed by the unnecessary loss of so many and I am on a more personal adventure to scrutinize, explore, blur and obliterate the lines between men, women, gods.....and monsters.

Small collections of my work have been on view at KGB Gallery NYC, The Greenpoint Gallery, The Leedy Voulkos Art Center in Kansas City, RePOP Brooklyn and in my studio in Bed Stuy Brooklyn.

To contact me about commissions, purchases of originals, studio visits or if you would like to exhibit my work, please don't hesitate to click on the button below.

You may also follow me on Instagram @repop_rustle

Russell Boyle joined Mobile Prints on August 9th, 2017.