LOT 138
| Technique | Veneer inlay and varnish mounted on plywood |
| Size | 42 x 30 cm |
| Availability | Available |
| Donation | 50% |
| Pickup | 69 Chestnut Avenue South |
In this Marquetry work, Karen Russo’s explorations of the darker side of human experience opens onto a scene of a mysterious, enigmatic landscapes: In the stark expressionist contrast of shadows and light, we are presented with a scene of almost inhuman strangeness; a family stands on top of a cliff overseeing a volcanic eruption rising against the night skies. Everything in Russo’s work remains a question hostile to answers, depicting a world itself hostile to comfort or welcome; This is not a place for reason or rationality, but speaks of every dark and irrational drive, that spans centuries, and lurk at the edges of human culture and civilisation.
About Karen Russo
Karen Russo (b. 1974, Tel-Aviv) is an artist based in London. Russo’s work uses document and narrative in an exploration of how knowledge, perception, and culture intertwine the rational with the obscure. By tracing marginalized practices, obscure phenomena and esoteric forms of knowledge she addresses the legacy of transgressive means for understanding the unseen and the unknown.
Russo’s work has been exhibited in venues including Barbican Centre; Hayward Gallery; Tate Modern; Towner Eastbourne; Delfina; Kino Kino Centre for Contemporary Art, Sandnes; Busan Biennial; Große Kunstschau Museum, Worpswede; Haus der Kulturen Der Welt, HKW Berlin; Krefeld Museum, Krefeld; Tel-Aviv Museum, Tel-Aviv; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; CCA Tel-Aviv, Hertzliya Museum, Petach-Tikva Museum and more.
Her films have been screened in festivals such as Oberhausen, Ann Arbor, EMAF, Uppsala, Kassell to name a few.
Recent awards include: Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film, Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2025; Special Mention Award, Oberhausen Film Festival, 2021; Ostrovsky Family Award for Best Experimental Film, Jerusalem Film Festival, 2021, Award for an Established Video Artist, Ministry of Culture, 2018; She is a Film London Jarman Award Nominee, 2023.
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