Opening: Friday, 19.8.2022, 7 pm

Over the past twenty years, artist, writer and performer John Russell has created an extensive body of work consisting of video works, installations and performances, which will now be made accessible to a broad audience in Germany for the first time. As part of the artist collective BANK, Russell established a collaborative practice in the 1990s. In the discourse around the Anthropocene, he takes a pioneering position that explores current questions of identity, religion, and climate. For the Kölnischer Kunstverein he produces a site-specific vinyl print from digital renderings. In terms of an anti-aesthetic, his works are influenced by the genre of science fiction and trash: apocalyptic, post-humanist worlds in which abundant natural landscapes are transformed by techno-scientific developments.

Curator: Nikola Dietrich


John Russell (b.1963) studied History of Art at Goldsmith’s College of Art and Fine Art at Slade School of Art and Saint Martin’s School of Art. He was a co-founder of the artists’ group BANK, of which he was a member for ten years. Since leaving BANK in January 2000, Russell has worked both independently and collaboratively in producing exhibitions, curatorial projects, and artist books. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions including Bridget Donahue, New York (2021 and 2018); Gold, High Art, Paris, France (2017); Kunsthalle Zürich (2017) and in group exhibitions at Viborg Kunsthal, Viborg, Denmark (2018); Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2018); Galerie Crèvecoeur, Paris (2018); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2017); Artists Space, New York (2014); The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK (2013); ICA, London (2011); Focal Point Gallery, Southend, UK (2011); The Grey Area, Brighton, UK (2011); Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria (2011); Tate Britain, London (2010); and Tate St Ives, Cornwall, UK (2009).


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