Russell Young, whose latest exhibition has just opened at Maddox Gallery’s new Berkeley Street gallery in Mayfair, has long been fascinated by fame and celebrity. Not in a “what is that thing Kim Kardashian’s wearing” kind of way but as a strange and double-edged by-product of film and music.
His new show, Dreamland, is a continuation of his long-standing exploration of what lies beneath the gloss of fame – the glittering diamond-dust surfaces of his paintings nod to this – where seduction, beauty, desire, envy and emptiness lurk. “Los Angeles was the flame, and I was the moth,” he says. “I was drawn to it (LA, celebrity, fame) for many years. I like the duality of fame and shame.”
