The work of Atlanta-area artists Richard Russell and Marie Matthews is being shown this month at the Gilmer Arts Gallery in downtown Ellijay.
Matthews works mainly with watercolors and Russell in making collages and shrines. Both artists have backgrounds in photography that have influenced their work.
Russell’s interest in making collage art began in elementary school. A photography graduate of the Atlanta College of Art and a working graphic designer, he produces vivid mixed media pieces that have been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Virginia Commonwealth University and a number of Georgia galleries
Recently, Russell has concentrated on artistic reliquaries, or shrines, that utilize found objects. He said that art form allows him to create a safe haven for the spirit of the objects used in the shrines, while also transforming them into something new.
“I think of my recent works as intimate personal therapy, a chance to center and calm myself each evening, to meditate on chaos and loss, a retreat from adulting and simply doing what I love just for the sake of doing it,” Russell added.
Several of the pieces now on display at Gilmer Arts were made using objects gathered from family belongings after Russell lost his mother and began caring for his aunt.
“Generally, I’m not very sentimental, but it’s been hard not to do a lot of reminiscing lately (after) clearing out a hoarder’s house and sorting out another home left well-organized,” he said. “The long-familiar keepsakes and souvenirs from my childhood and my family’s past now carry a bit more gravitas. But, at the end of the day, it’s all just stuff.”
The “Memory Loss” exhibit at Gilmer Arts features more than 20 of Russell’s unique mixed media assemblages.
“These shrines are curated and conjured from relics, languages and mythologies that only I am privy to, and they share stories we all know,” he said.
“I’m infatuated with some of this stuff from past eras — old paper, simple household utensils, knickknacks and tchotchkes — (but) I don’t gather or hold on to them because they remind me of my grandparents. Many have fables I’ve heard all my life, but that history exists in my memories, not in jewelry, a letter or a piece of porcelain.”
As a professional photographer, Marie Matthews works in several areas including portraits, maternity, commercial and architectural photography.
A member of the Georgia Watercolor Society, she uses her years of experience in figure drawing and photography to create realistic, lifelike watercolor paintings.
Elizabeth Vititoe, Gilmer Arts board president, said the “Realism, Surrealism, Abstraction” exhibit at the gallery features an eclectic collection of work based on Matthews’ decades of teaching and painting. Some of the pieces were inspired by the artist’s life experiences, others by living in Atlanta and New Orleans, Vititoe noted.
“This show is a study of how the fundamentals of drawing and design work in a wide range of styles, including loose but realistic work, abstraction and works of pure imagination,” she added.
Also featured in the exhibit are several of Matthews’ surreal and abstract pieces, some of which were created using an iPhone.
Both exhibits can be seen at the 207 Dalton Street gallery through Sept. 28.
An opening reception for the exhibits had been planned, but wasn’t held due to the number of COVID-19 cases in the county. Gilmer Arts encourages those visiting the gallery to wear a mask.