Russ Warren, American (1951 - )

Russ Warren studied under Earl Staley at the University of
St. Thomas in Houston from 1969 to 1971 and finished his
B.F.A. at the University of New Mexico in 1973. His earliest
paintings reveal a dedicated study of the early Modernists, such
as Cézanne, Kirchner, Matisse and, especially, Picasso. Still Life
with Hands (1971) displays an impressive mastery of these
influences. The cutouts of the artist’s own hands, placed
centrally within and over newspaper clippings of the day points
to an autobiographical component that will resurface periodically
in his work. In 1981, Eva Hesse noticed this in her review of
his first solo show in New York, calling the works “private
autobiographical paintings that create a mystique of the self.”Raised in Texas, painter and printmaker Russ Warren is influenced greatly by Spanish colonial religious iconography mixed Mexican folk art and twentieth century Cubism. His oil paintings involve not only layers of paint but often collaged material, while subject matter ranges from still life to horses, which he raises and shows.

After graduating from the University of New Mexico in 1973,
Warren moved into his own studio in Houston (1973–5) and
worked again with his mentor at St. Thomas, Earl Staley, on an
installation for the Beaumont Art Museum in which he created
huge papier maché sculptures of Texas Longhorn, oilmen,
businessmen, oversized Stuckey’s ash trays in the shape of the
state, and other Pop-like images.
In graduate school at the University of Texas, San Antonio
(1975–77), he participated in a program designed as an equivalent
to a Ph.D. for artists. He received his M.F.A. in 1977, after
completing an in-depth thesis on Regionalism, beginning with
the WPA works of the 1920s and ’30s, and continuing through
the Chicago, California and Texas art movements of the 70’s.
His belief that an artist did not need to become “mainstream”
to “make it” in New York seemed to be upheld when on separate
occasions both Marcia Tucker, then director of the New Museum
and Tom Armstrong, then director of the Whitney Museum of
American Art, gave him “Best in Show” awards. Their recognition
led to his participation in the Whitney Biennial of 1981, gallery
representation with Phyllis Kind, and inclusion in the 1984
Venice Biennale, among other important exhibitions.After moving from his native Texas to Florida and then to
Davidson, North Carolina, Warren’s Regionalism gave way to
what he has dubbed “Funky Figurative,” and others have called
“mad cap surrealist” (Donald Kuspit), False Image, False
Naiveté, New Image, New Wave, and Neo Expressionist art.
His repeated trips to Mexico and Spain during these years
heighten his interest in folk art and the Spanish masters
Velazquez, Goya and Picasso. His animals and figures, now
stripped of all particulars, act and interact as in a strange
“Magic Theatre” (Barry Schwabsky), taking part in what seem
to be epic passion plays, often hovering in catastrophic spaces
produced by his exaggerated use of shadow and perspective.

In 1990, while developing an art class on Picasso at Davidson
College, Warren became obsessed with Paso Fino horses; and
they began to populate his paintings. One of his most ambitious
and successful series, Mare: A Work in Progress, consists of
twenty oil paintings, each measuring 4 x 7' or 4 x 8'. The huge
pregnant mare in these works and the house or temple in works
leading up to them become the vessel or metaphor for painting
itself. Timeless themes of creation and destruction, light and
dark, life and death, exist side by side with tongue-in-cheek
references to high and low art, as in Elvis Ain’t No Cubist.

In 2001 Warren returned to basics and to his sketchbooks for
a series he refers to as “Psychoanalytical Portraits.” The earliest
paintings—oil on panel, mostly in black and white, measuring
20 x 16"—are emblems of personal and/or universal angst,
recalling the isolation and pain of Munch’s Scream and our
post-9/11 world. These “portraits” morph into concise
analyses of human attitudes and conditions, from isolation and
anxiety to union and joy and back again.

North Carolina artist, Russ Warren has shown nationally and internationally and was selected for a Whitney Biennial,a New Orleans Triennial and represented the United States in the Venice Biennale. His work is included in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Gibbes Art Museum,Chase Manhattan Bank, and First Charter Center to list a few.

1951 Born in Washington DC
1973 B.F.A. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM
1977 M.F.A. University of Texas at San Antonio,
San Antonio TX
1978–present Professor of Art, Davidson College,
Davidson NC
1986–2006 Who’s Who in American Art
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2005 Forgive Us Not, Les Yeux du Monde,Charlottesville VA
2004 Of Deaths and Legends, 2000–2002, Van Every
Gallery, Davidson College
2003 From the Sketchbooks, Les Yeux du Monde,
Charlottesville VA
2001 Elvis Ain’t No Cubist, Van Every Gallery,
Davidson College
1999 Mare: A Work in Progress, Les Yeux du Monde at
Starr Hill, Charlottesville VA
1999 Mare: A Work in Progress, Van Every Gallery,
Davidson College
1999 New Paintings, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte NC
1992 Caballos de Locura, Christa Faut Gallery, Davidson NC
1991 Classic Fino, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte NC
1989 Bull!, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte NC
1988 Recent Prints and Drawings, Hodges Taylor
Gallery, Charlotte NC
1987 Recent Works, Jailhouse Gallery, Morganton Arts
Council, Morganton NC
1979 – 2007 Recent Paintings, Davidson College Art Gallery,
Davidson NC
1986 Russ Warren: Sculpture, Hodges Taylor Gallery,
Charlotte NC
1985 North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh NC
1985 Drew University Art Gallery, Madison NJ
1984 Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte NC
1984 Emblems of the Unseeable, Knight Gallery,
Charlotte NC
1988, ’84, ’82 Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago
1984, ’82, ’81 Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
1981 High Point Arts Council, High Point NC
1980 University of North Carolina at Charlotte,
Charlotte NC
1979 Spirit Square Art Gallery, Charlotte NC
1978 Store Front Gallery, Tampa Bay Arts Council,
Tampa FL

1977 San Antonio Museum of Modern Art and
University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio TX
1975 University of St. Thomas Art Gallery, Houston TX
1972 First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque,
Albuquerque NM
1972 First National Bank Gallery of Art, Albuquerque NM
1972 Old Town Studio, Albuquerque NM
Selected Group Exhibitions
2005 Equus II, curated by Sarah Sargent, The Arts
Center in Orange, Orange VA
2004 Gallery Artists, Les Yeux du Monde,
Charlottesville VA
2004 The Figure, Inside and Out, Hodges Taylor
Gallery, Charlotte NC
1998 Moving into the Millennium: Light, Les Yeux du
Monde, Charlottesville VA
1999 Moving into the Millennium: Darkness, Les Yeux
du Monde, Charlottesville VA
2001 Reconstructing Eden: Contemporary American
Landscape Painting, Hodges Taylor Gallery,
Charlotte NC
2000 North Carolina 20th-Century Masters, Lee
Hansley Gallery, Raleigh NC
1992 Somar Invitational Exhibition, Waterworks Visual
Art Center, Salisbury NC
1992 Lithography: True Fine Art of Printing, Hickory
Museum of Art, Hickory NC
1991 Graphic Figures – Figurative Graphics, 7 American
Artists in Cologne, Germany
1991 Art and Social Vision, Green Hill Center for
North Carolina Art, Greensboro NC
1990 Images of Faith, Kentucky Museum, Northport AL
1989 Looking South: A Different Dixie, Birmingham
Museum of Art, Birmingham AL
1989 Made in America, Virginia Beach Center for the
Arts, Virginia Beach VA
1989 North Carolina Artists Invitational, Hickory
Museum of Art, Hickory NC
1988 Vitreographoen, Kunstsammlurger der Veste,
Coburg, West Germany
1988–90 41st Corcoran Biennial Exhibition of
Contemporary American Painting, Corcoran
Gallery of Art, Washington DC
1987 Fact/Fiction/Fantasy: Recent Narrative Art in the
Southeast, Ewing Gallery, University of Tennessee,
Knoxville TN
1987 Warmer Climate—Cool at Night, Spirit Square
Arts Center, Charlotte NC
1987 Drawing Redefined, Green Hill Center for North
Carolina Art, Greensboro NC
1987 North Carolina Artists Exhibition, North Carolina
Museum of Art, Raleigh NC
1987 The Crayon Show, Southeast Center for
Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem NC
1987 Luminous Impressions: Prints from Glass Plates,
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte NC
1986 Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory NC
1986 Bon a Tirer, Winstone Press and the RJR Gallery,
Winston-Salem NC
1986 Dream Faces, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York NY
1986 5th Annual North Carolina Sculpture
Invitational, Northern Telecom, Durham NC and
Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory NC
1986 Southern Contemporary Artists Invitational,
Jacksonville State University and Anniston
Museum of Natural History, Anniston AL
1986 Black and White: A Drawing Exhibition,
Gallery 29I, Atlanta GA; the Georgia Museum of
Art, Athens GA; and Ewing Gallery, University of
Tennessee, Knoxville TN
1986 The Printed Image: More Than Meets the Eye,
Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art,
Greensboro NC
1986 Artists Outside Chicago, Phyllis Kind Gallery,
Chicago IL
1986 Kind at Koplin, Koplin Gallery, Los Angeles CA
1986 Art in Public Places, Wilmington NC
1986 Four North Carolina Artists, Comma Gallery,
Morganton Arts Council, Morganton NC
1986 Prints From Glass, Western Carolina University,
Cullowhee NC
1986 Drawings, Knight Gallery, Spirit Square Arts
Center, Charlotte NC
1985 New Figurative Painting, Asheville Art Museum,
Asheville NC
1985 Artists Fellowship Exhibition, North Carolina Arts
Council, Southeastern Center for Contemporary
Art, Winston-Salem NC
1985 The Figure: Form and Expression, Waterworks
Gallery, Salisbury NC
1984 USA: Portrait of the South, Palazzo Venezia,
Rome, Italy
1984 Here and Now, Greenville County Museum of
Art, Greenville SC
1984 Venice Biennale, US Information Agency and New
Museum of Contemporary Art, New York,
Venice, Italy
1984 SECCA VII, Southeast Center for Contemporary
Art, Winston-Salem NC
1983 Southern Fictions, Contemporary Arts Museum,
Houston TX
1983 Southern Fervor: Religious Iconography in
Contemporary Southern Painting, Anderson
Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University,
Richmond VA
1983 On the Leading Edge, General Electric Company,
Fairfield CT
1983 Painting in the South, Virginia Museum,
Richmond VA
1983 Group Show, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York NY
1983 Intoxication, Monique Knowlton Gallery,
New York NY
1982 New Painting I: American, Middendorf-Lane
Gallery, Washington DC
1982 Beast, P.S. 1, New Yorkc
1982 Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis
Museum of Art, Indianapolis IN
1982 Magic in Art, Spirit Square, Charlotte nc
1982 Agitated Figures: The New Emotionalism,
Albright-Knox Gallery of Art; Hallways Gallery;
and Hal Bromm Gallery, New York NY and
Buffalo NY
1982 Figurative Images, Georgia State University Art
Gallery, Atlanta GA
1982 The Human Figure in Contemporary Art,
Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans LA
1981 Currents: A New Mannerism, Jacksonville Art
Museum, Jacksonville FL
1981 Changing Visions, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los
Angeles CA
1981 Printmaking Group Show, Southeast Center for
Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem NC
1981 Figures: Forms and Expressions, Albright-Knox
Gallery, Buffalo NY
1981 Contemporary Drawings, University of California
at Santa Barbara CA
1981 Whitney Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of
Art, New York NY
1980 New Orleans Triennial, New Orleans Museum of
Art, New Orleans LA
1980 Tragicomedy, Mystery, and Humor, North Carolina
Museum of Art, Raleigh NC
1980 Dog Show, Raleigh Museum of Art, Collectors
Gallery, Raleigh NC
1980 48th Southeastern Competition, SECCA,
Winston-Salem NC
1979 Rutgers Drawing ’79, Rutgers University,
Camden NJ
1979, ’78 Shelby Annual Juried Exhibition, Shelby NC
1979 Regional Exhibition, Arts Festival of Atlanta GA
1979 Appalachian National Drawing Competition,
Farthing Art Gallery, Boone NC
1979 Boston Printmakers 31st Annual, Boston MA
1979 Biennial Exhibition, Mint Museum of Art,
Charlotte NC
1979 Recent Prints, Winthrop College, Rock Hill SC
1979 Chiaha Regional Exhibition, First National Bank,
Rome GA
1979 Charlotte Printmakers Exhibition, Charlotte
Observer Building, Charlotte NC
1979, ’77, ’76 Houston Area Exhibition, Sarah Cambell Blaffer
Gallery Annex, Houston TX
1979 Art of the Carolinas traveling exhibition, Spring
Mills, Fort Mill SC
1977 Amarillo Art Competition, Amarillo Art Center,
Amarillo TX
1977 Bosch Bash, University of St. Thomas, Houston TX
1976 Artists Invitational, Beaumont Art Museum,
Beaumont TX
1976, ’75 Winners Exhibition and Artists Biennial, New
Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans LA
1976 Christmas Print and Drawing Exhibition, San
Antonio Museum of Modern Art, San Antonio TX
1975 Southeast Texas Collective, Beaumont Art Museum,
Beaumont TX
Selected Catalogues
Equus II, curated by Sarah Sargent for the Arts
Center in Orange, November–December 2005
The 41st Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary
American Painting, by William S. Fagaly,
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1989
North Carolina Artists Exhibition 1987, with a
conversation with Roberta Smith, Guest Curator,
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh NC, 1987
Luminous Impressions: Prints From Glass Plates,
essay by Jane Kessler, Mint Museum of Art,
Charlotte NC, 1987
Prints From Glass, Western Carolina University,
Cullowhee NC, 1986
5th Annual Exhibition of North Carolina Sculpture,
Research Triangle Park NC, 1986
Emblems of the Unseeable, by Carter Ratcliff, Knight
Gallery, Charlotte NC, 1984
Beast, P.S.I., New York NY, 1983
Painting in the South, 1540–1980, by Donald
Kuspit, Virginia Museum, Richmond VA, 1983
Southern Fictions, Contemporary Arts Museum,
Houston TX, 1983
Painting and Sculpture Today: 1982, Indianapolis
Museum of Art, 1982
Agitated Figures, New Emotionalism, Hallways
Gallery, New York NY, 1982
Figures, Forms, and Expressions, Albright-Knox
Gallery, New York NY, 1982
Contemporary Drawing, University of California at
Santa Barbara, 1981
1981 Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York NY, 1981
1980 New Orleans Triennial, by Marcia Tucker and
the NOMA, 1980
Rutgers National Drawing ’79, by Virginia Stell
and Rutgers University, 1980
1975 Artists Biennial Winners Exhibition, New
Orleans Museum of Art, 1975
1975 Artists Biennial, by NOMA and Jane
Livingston, 1975
Southeast Texas Collective, Beaumont Museum of
Art, Beaumont TX, 1975
Selected Reviews
“Russ Warren,” Vivien Raynor, New York Times,
December 28, 1985
“Russ Warren’s Magic Theatre, “ Barry Schwabsky,
Arts Magazine, April 1985
“Russ Warren,” Jane Kessler, Atlanta Art Papers,
November/December 1984
“Russ Warren’s Emblems of the Unseeable, Jane
Grau, Arts Journal, November 1984
“Intoxication,” Nicolas A. Moufarrege, Arts
Magazine, April 1983
“Russ Warren,” Ronny Cohen, ARTnews, February
1983
“Russ Warren, Susan A. Harris, Arts Magazine,
January 1983
“Changing Visions,” Merle Schipper, Images &
Issues, Summer 1982
“ The Whitney and Guggenheim,” Ellen Schwarts,
ARTnews, April 1981
“Biennial Blues, Roberta Smith, Art in America,
April 1981
“How Emerging Artists Emerge,” Grace Glueck,
ARTnews, May 1981
“Curatorial Conceptions, Carrie Ricky, Artforum,
April 1981
“Russ Warren,” Jesse Murray, Arts Magazine, May
1981
“Russ Warren, Xray Visions,” Elizabeth Hess,
Village Voice, June 3–9, 1981
Selected Collections
Victoria Beck and James Newman, Buffalo NY
Amos Cahan, New York NY
Coran Capshaw, Charlottesville VA
Barbara Gladstone, New York NY
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York NY
Chemical Bank, New York NY
General Electric Company, Fairfield CT
Gibbes Art Museum, Charleston SC
Dorothy Hodges, Charlotte NC
Howard Holtzman, Kildeere, IL
Mr. and Mrs. Morton Hornick
Nanette Laitman, New York NY
Sydney and Francis Lewis Foundation, Richmond VA
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte NC
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans LA
The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh NC
Palmer Museum of Art, Palmer Museum of Art,
University Park PA
Princeton University, Princeton NJ
A. G. Rosen NJ
Martin Sklar, New York NY
Holly Solomon, New York NY
University of Virginia Museum of Art,
Charlottesville VA