Nadia Russ: NeoPopRealism

Olga Chemokhud Doty

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Five
things I like the most:


1.    
Music;


2.    
Sex with man I love;


3.    
Art;


4.    
Lobsters;


5.    
Cuban cigars, especially Cohiba


Every
day switch the numbers.”


 



style="mso-spacerun: yes"> "Some people have brains, other
people - money. Who is more funny?"


–
Nadia Russ quote of the year 2004


 


It often
happens that meeting it’s creator challenges the impressions formed after
seeing art.  However, when I met
Nadia Russ her personality came across as being in total harmony with her artwork:
bright and florescent but not garish; well balanced but not overpainted. A bit
showy, slightly humorous, playfully erotic with a touch of mysticism. Nadia
refused to talk about her past. But she did talk about her influences she said.
“I always need challenge.  It was
too stifling for me just to be a classical musician. I love diversity:
different music, Rock, Pop, Hip-Hop, different people, different environments,
I love New York, New York is the Best city in the World, challenging and
stimulating.” After establishing a career as a musician she went on to publish
a book of humorous stories with her own illustrations “There came a point in my
life when a ‘block’ just lifted off me and I started painting. I think if a
person has a sense of harmony in his soul it will manifest itself in any
endeavor.” Her compositions are harmonious but at the same time challenging,
sometimes with “pop your eyes out” color combinations, sometimes with the
subject matter.  She came up with a
term Neopoprealism
to describe her work. Her brightly colored canvases with flat linear rendering
are reminiscent of the psychedelic posters of Peter Max.
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  But in some works like “His Inner”
or  “Magicians” she uses
crisscrossing lines that connect figures with mystical signs surrounding them
in patterned backgrounds. Nadia's implement of black outlines in her paintings
give her works a very defined, flat, graphic nature. In the work “New York
Faces” the composition is drawn with black acrylic lines on the white
background with selective use of blocked colors. Nadia is a master of balancing
the hi energy colors in her compositions with poetic drawing style. Her art is
whimsical and philosophical at the same time.


 


Her
paintings are on view at 96 St .New York Public Library 112 E 96 street.