JK Russ: Hard Sell Future

11 September 2020 - 7 February 2021

Tauranga Art Gallery Toi Tauranga is pleased to announce a major new site-specific commission and exhibition for the entry atrium gallery by artist JK Russ, titled Hard Sell Future. 

Working predominantly with the medium of collage, JK Russ creates fantasy environments where hybrid humans merge with plants, birds, and other creatures. The impact of humans on the environment is evident in her recent work.

“I began working on the Hard Sell Future collage in June 2019. I was feeling like we were heading towards a global apocalypse with growing environmental and human crises, and of course since then we’ve experienced the devastating Australian bushfires and a global pandemic. So this work is a bit of grim comment on what I see as our current state of affairs globally. However, I can also see hope through the indigenous cultures leading the way in protecting our natural environment, and the Black Lives Matter global protest movement. Maybe this has all led to a tipping point when populations undertake a cultural shift in thinking and behaviour.” 
- JK Russ, June 2020

Based in Las Vegas since 2010, Russ has developed large-scale collage installations where visitors contribute to the completed work. Represented by PAULNACHE in New Zealand, her collage work has been shown at the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt, the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui, the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, NV, the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art in Las Vegas, NV and the Torrance Art Museum in California.

Principal Exhibition Partner: 

Image credit:  'JK and performers' (detail) installation courtesy of Delano Hotel Las Vegas, 2020