NATHANIEL RUSSELL FOR SYNTAX SEASON

MAY 21 - JUNE 12, 2016
@ PRINTtEXT
652 E 52nd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46205
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 21, 2-5 pm  

Nathaniel Russell uses the vernacular forms of books, posters, flyers and everyday objects as vehicles for incisive and poetic fragments of language and humor. Working with a reduced visual vocabulary, his hand-made and roughly hewn pieces casually interrogate the way in which we engage with and think about the world around us. Russell playfully distills texts and objects to their most basic elements, resulting in aphoristic works that are often as funny as they are poignant.

Focusing primarily on Russell's fake magazines, posters and cut-out objects, this exhibition–much like the artist's own practice–explores the slippages between real and imagined, by, for example, introducing fake publications in an actual periodical shop. Such co-mingling invites viewers to engage with Russell’s work and PRINTtEXT’s wares on equal footing, avoiding the usual distinctions made between art and life.

Nathaniel Russell was born and raised in Indiana. He attended Ball State University and graduated with a BFA in Printmaking. After college, Russell spent several years in the San Francisco Bay Area making posters, record covers, and woodcuts. He returned to his home city of Indianapolis and now spends his time creating drawings, paintings, fake fliers, bad sculptures, wood cut-outs, and music. Russell’s work is regularly shown around the world in both traditional galleries and informal spaces, usually surrounded by an expanding list of friends, collaborators, and like-minded folk. He frequently returns to his second home of California to work with friends on projects as varied as murals, print workshops, and backyard musical performances. www.nathanielrussell.com