TUJ Art Malcolm Russ was born in the summer of 1992 in Killeen Texas, but he didn’t stay there long. With around 30 moves across 8 states and 3 countries, Russ could be considered a nomad. He has lived in the United States (Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Florida, California, Colorado, and Hawaii) as well as Germany. He currently lives in Tokyo Japan where he practices a mix of Painting, Photography, music, and animation.
He wasn’t always practiced in the field of Art, however. While his music making was mostly self-study. He didn’t start his studies with Photography until 2021, and his painting studies began in 2023. He has, however, quickly developed his own styles in both.
His photos focus on color and time, with daytime photos often converted into duo tone. His night photographs involve use of colored light and long exposure. His paintings are similarly colorful while being notably abstract and/or figurative. Musically, he his songs span a wide variety of genres including psychedelic, pop, rap, and even rock. He often creates animated music videos for his music.
Malcolm Russ has founded an art collective along with fellow artist Tim Shill entitled Aアート袋(Art Bukuro.) This collective’s objective is to help keep fellow graduates active in the art community beyond university. It will eventually have its own studio and gallery area. There is much to be seen with this collective, and its first showing has yet to occur.
What separates Malcolm Russ’ work from other artists is the creativity-driven nature of it, along with the humor implanted within it. His work can vary widely, based on how he approaches each piece. His goal with his work is to create a more beautiful and positive world. And if that leads to a bunch of the random ideas he has being realized in the physical world, that’s all the better
Eclipse Meditation, 2022
This photograph was taken during a lunar eclipse in 2022. This particular photograph is quite significant in my development as a photographer. Exposed for around 30 secconds, this photograph features a woman meditating under the stars in a natural setting. She is surrounded by medium length plants which take up the lower third of the photo. A rolling tree line marks the 2nd third of the picture and a field of stars blankets the top. What seems to be a red comet blazes past and is mimiced by the red after image of the woman’s face, which can be seen in her hair. The model herself is lit in an eerie mixture of cyan with a hint of red, giving off a mystical feeling. There is a light cyan light that cascades around the model as well.
Apparition Pseudo-panorama, 2023
In this piece, I’ve taken my night-style photography to a new level. Not a true panorama, This photograph is actually 3 different shots stictched together into one large photo. The phot on the left is a long expoure of a tree with a fairly large spiderweb strung between its diverging trunks.
The middle photo is, in my opinion, one of my strongest Long exposure shots to date. Its another 30 second exposed shot of a single model who moves throughout the entire show to create 3 afterimages of herself. I believe that this is one of the images that defines my nocturnal photography style the best.
Museum of Contemporary Art, 2023
This is a rather geometric photograph. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo has an interesting design. I wanted to highlight the entrance of the museum without taking the obvious front-facing way. So I moved to the side and took my shot with the water feature and one of the art sculptures together.