Russell Sharon — Hal Bromm Gallery

Hal Bromm
90 West Broadway, 2nd floor
New York, NY, 10007
+1 212-732-6196

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Tue–Fri 12–5
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Russell Sharon b. 1948

Abstract painter and sculptor Russell Sharon (b. 1948, Randall, Minnesota) graduated from the Universidad de las Americas in Mexico City in 1972 and pursued further education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1973 to 1975. Moving to New York in the late 1970s, Sharon developed his neo-expressionist style in his downtown studio on the Lower East Side, which he shared with his late partner, Luis Frangella.

Against the backdrop of a highly commodified art scene, Sharon was an early contributor to the walls of Pier 34. Although Sharon became a key figure in the East Village art scene, showing his work at iconic galleries of the time including Hal Bromm, Civilian Warfare, and Gracie Mansion, collaborating with James Ivory and Martha Graham, art critic Carlo McCormick observed that Sharon’s work has always drawn inspiration from his coming of age in Morrison County.

Sharon's paintings are most often horizontal works layered in two, three or four colors, focusing on the abstraction of natural landscapes inspired by the iconic personal terrain of Minnesota's lake country: "I live on a farm, and my work is a reflection of that", says Sharon of his lifetime home where he grew up. Due to the artist's blocky deconstruction of the composition, a constant fixation on the horizon is the viewer's only clue to the subject matter. "In the fine line between abstraction and representation lies the possibility of capturing the response one feels".

Using color to create environmental moods, Sharon’s work explores the experience of being in nature, compressing the changes of the landscape over time into two-dimensional renderings. Sharon has said about his work: “There appears to be a timeless point where painting both represents and becomes Nature, where abstraction and representation touch and separate; where the Spirit and Grace of Nature inform the artist directly, allowing the artist to work as a force of Nature, rather than as an interpreter.”

Russell Sharon has also done many portraits of people in the various places where he has lived and worked, such as the series 101 Faces: one hundred paintings exhibited as a group to reflect the spirit of his community. From his academic pursuits in his early life, Sharon says, he found an immense yearning and curiosity to discover people and places in both familiar and unfamiliar destinations.

His work also includes abstract sculptures utilizing metal and wood and figurative sculptures made utilizing a chainsaw. Since the mid 1980's, Sharon has had work shown and celebrated in many solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Europe, and South America. He shares his life between Minnesota and the South Beach section of Miami, where he has an apartment, as well as a studio in South Florida.