caesura
Martha Russo
AUGUST 3 - DECEMBER 2, 2023
Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery
Ent Center for the Arts
caesura
Martha Russo
Martha Russo’s genre-defying body of work is experienced as an exercise in contradiction. Upon first encounter, her sculptural investigations appear at once fragile and potentially dangerous, cautioning one away while hypnotically drawing one in – ever closer – for intimate examination. It is both in distance and in the details that these monumentally microscopic objects stir a deep-seated memory of abject yet alien familiarity; they strike a chord between chaos and meticulous categorization, sublimity and repulsion, and magically minimal maximalism. Russo’s work mirrors natural cycles of entropy and consumption essential to life as we know it, but that lie beyond the realm of most human comprehension.
The dichotomies in Russo’s creative practice – from materials to subject matter – are no wonder when her education and formative years are taken into consideration. Born into a family of medical professionals, she earned her B.A. in Developmental Biology and Psychology at Princeton University, where was also an accomplished athlete with designs on competing with the U.S. Olympic Field Hockey team. Following a devastating injury, she found solace in creative practice, having first learned about ceramics on a trip abroad, then deepening her studies under renowned American artist Toshiko Takaezu, who was instrumental in shifting her perception of the medium from functional craft to fine art. Fusing her scientific and artistic academic training to investigate the corporeal possibilities of sculpture, Russo advanced her unparalleled pedigree in the arts to complete an MFA at the University of Colorado, Boulder under celebrated ceramicist Betty Woodman.
An exhibition nearly eight years in the making, caesura is aptly titled, meaning a break, pause, or interruption in the flow of a verse or melody. Unlike the accident that fortuitously redirected the artist from a career in medicine to full-time studio practice and arts education, a caesura is not unexpected but is rather an intentional moment to breathe between one phrase and the next. Literally and conceptually, caesura occupies the space(s) in-between as a place of rest, reflection, and recapitulation. Combining signature works of art with never-before-seen creative experiments, this installation is part mad scientist’s laboratory and part naturalist’s notebook; the sensibility of felled redwoods, shredded aspen, petri dishes, catalogued chaos, and the elegance of precious engagement with the wild is brought to fruition through unconventional materials found amongst studio detritus, porcelain tendrils bulbous acrylic bellies, oxidized nails, and… wattles.
Come closer into the world of caesura and meet Martha Russo – an artist with the insatiable curiosity of a child, the enthusiasm of an athlete, and rigor of a scientist coalesced through unparalleled proficiency of visual vocabulary.
Learn more about Martha Russo’s public art piece, phase shift (wattling), which is currently on-view as part of GOCA’s Art WithOut Limits program.
IMPORTANT DATES
Exhibition on View
August 3 - December 2, 2023
Gallery hours:
Thursday - Saturday, 1 - 6 p.m., or by appointment
email gallery@uccs.edu / call 719.255.3504
Opening Reception:
August 3, 2023, 5:00-8:00 pm
Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery
Visiting Artists & Critics Lecture: Martha Russo
September 28, 2023, 6:00 pm
Chapman Foundation Recital Hall, Ent Center for the Arts
Behind the Scenes:
Watch a behind the scenes documentary of caesura with Martha Russo!
Learn more about the artworks in caesura!
caesura is made possible by the Boyatt Family, the Herhart Family, and UCCS. Additional support for the exhibition was provided by CU Boulder Art and Art History Department, CU Boulder Idea Forge, DenCol Metal, Demiurge, Aspen Wood Products, Stone Leaf Pottery, and Seidel City.
Photos and Videos by Wes Magyar, Stellar Propeller Studio, Joshua Dorado, and Lynné Bowman Cravens , for the Galleries of Contemporary Art at UCCS, 2023
About the Artist
Martha Russo (b. 1962, Milford, Connecticut) earned her Bachelor of Arts in developmental biology and psychology from Princeton University in 1985. In 1984, while vying for a spot on the United States Olympic Field Hockey Team, she suffered a career-ending injury. After recovering from surgery, Russo was attracted to the physical nature of sculpture and ceramics. She began studying studio arts in Florence, Italy in 1983 and continued studying ceramics at Princeton University with Toshiko Takaezu. In 1996, she earned her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Russo exhibits her sculptures and installations nationally at venues such as the Allan Stone Gallery in New York City, Denver Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver, Miami Project, and The Santa Fe Art Institute. Her work was the focus of a 25-year survey at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in 2016. Russo’s work is in many private and public collections including the Denver Art Museum. Another facet to her studio practice is through the socially and politically-based art collective, Artnauts, Russo has shown her 2-dimensional works in 280 exhibitions in 22 countries. She has been the collective coordinator for the last 12 years.
In addition to her studio practice, Russo is a lecturer at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Art and Art History Department and the College of Engineering. Prior to that appointment, she taught at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design in Denver for 18 years. She lives in the mountains northwest of Boulder, Colorado with her husband, Joe Ryan and they have a daughter, Odelia, and a son, Henry.
About the Curator
Guest curator Joy Armstrong has 15 years of experience in the museum and gallery world - most recently, a decade as an award-winning curator of modern and contemporary art at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College. In her professional life and beyond, she has dedicated herself to exploring authentic, creative, radically inclusive community engagement, applying this passion to her work with artists and various organizations. Since September 2019, she has served as the development director for Inside Out Youth Services, a non-profit striving to build power and equity for and alongside LGBTQ+ and allied young people of the Pikes Peak region. Armstrong holds a B.A. in studio art and communications from the University of Denver, an M.A. in contemporary art history and criticism from Kent State University, and a PhD in Educational Leadership, Research, from University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.