Jillian Russo
Jillian Russo is a Brooklyn-based curator and art historian.
Leonardo Drew
By Jillian RussoLeonardo Drew’s exhibition at Galerie Lelong & Co. pairs a monumental site-specific installation with nine recent sculptures, creating a magical, immersive environment. The works on view reflect Drew’s various approaches to his materials, including wood, cotton fabric, and aluminum, which he cuts, distresses, and paints, giving them the quality of found objects. Drew is known for repurposing previous sculptures to create new ones, mirroring natural cycles of decay and transformation.
Will Ryman: New York, New York
By Jillian RussoWill Ryman’s exhibition New York, New York at Chart Gallery celebrates the city’s absurdity, vitality, grittiness, and beauty with ten sculptural works conceived as vignettes of street life.
Wandamba yalungka.../Winds change direction...
By Jillian RussoAn exhibition of 13 video works addressing today’s most pressing global concerns, Wandamba yalungka/Winds change direction, takes its title from the traditional language of the Waanyi aboriginal people of Queensland. The language is on the verge of extinction, spoken by only 16 people as of 2016. Expertly curated by Maura Reilly for the Performa website, the exhibition brings together an international and multi-generational group of artists.
Angela Davis: Seize the Time
By Jillian RussoThoughtfully co-curated by Gerry Beegan and Donna Gustafson, a selection of posters, print media, courtroom sketches, artwork, and photographs document the construction of Angela Davis’s public image by mainstream and alternative media. Interspersed with the archival material are works by contemporary artists who continue to build upon Davis’s philosophies of freedom.
Roxy Paine: Normal Fault
By Jillian RussoThe exhibition Normal Fault at Kasmin Gallery features thirteen relief paintings and one small diorama, all created in 2021, exploring ecological and geological systems.
Yashua Klos: Our Labour
By Jillian RussoEliminating many of Rivera’s intricate details, Klos leaves empty space in which the figures float. As a result, the composition doesn’t read as entirely resolved. This is possibly suggestive of the bonds still forming between Klos and his family, but it also gives the collage a Dadaist quality.
The Unreliability of Primary Sources
By Jillian RussoParsing out what you know and what you don’t know from archival material is an intrinsic part of research. Archives and other primary sources are generally considered more reliable than secondary sources, such as art criticism, theoretical studies, and historical texts, because they are first-hand accounts.
