Archive note: This newly written historical account revisits artist Russell Leng, the subject of an earlier Grandpa Style interview. It does not reproduce that interview or its original photographs.
An artist working across materials
Russell Leng’s early exhibition history moves between painting and installation. His published CV records an MFA in Contemporary Art Practice from the University of Edinburgh in 2013, followed by exhibitions including Sudden Death in Calgary in 2014 and Too Many Maps at Field Contemporary in Vancouver in 2015.
For readers returning to this archive, the useful starting point is the work itself: how a surface is assembled, what enters the composition and how making can lead an artist beyond an initial idea.
Making as a starting point
In Wendy Delamont Lees’s June 2014 profile for Trinity Western University, Leng discussed the importance of continually reconsidering his tastes. The article described an abstract painting show in Toronto and a Calgary installation concerned with sport, success and failure. It also placed the excitement of making at the centre of his practice.
That account helps explain why a single medium or exhibition title gives only a partial view of his work. These were projects described in 2014, rather than a list of exhibitions available to visit today.
Two works, different surfaces
Kolaj’s public preview of its 2015 feature describes Leng gathering materials before knowing exactly how he will use them. Its accompanying captions offer two concrete examples: A4 (2013) brings glitter together with painting and drawing media on a wood panel; Too Many Maps 1 (2015) includes holographic foil and a laminate swatch alongside paint and oil pastel on canvas.
Our editorial reading is that the material list deserves attention alongside the image. Paint, reflective foil and a manufactured sample introduce different kinds of surface into one work. The full magazine feature is separate from the publicly accessible preview used here.
How to look at the work
When viewing the two works reproduced on Kolaj’s page, consider:
- Which edges divide the composition, and which connect its parts?
- Where does colour draw attention before texture does?
- How does knowing the listed materials change your reading?
These are prompts for looking, not claims about the artist’s intended meaning. A screen image also cannot fully convey the scale, relief or changing reflections of the physical work.
Related archive reading
For a different use of materials and form, read about Melitta Baumeister’s sculptural clothing, or explore other people and projects in the Archive.
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