Russell
Young
The OA Fine Art galleries present in Paris the original works of Russell Young, a leading figure of contemporary pop art. Marilyn, Bardot, James Dean, Elvis: icons pulled by hand and lifted with diamond dust, where glamour and melancholy hold within the same image. Unique pieces, available in the gallery.
The artworks
in the gallery
Diamond dust cannot be photographed: it catches fire depending on where you stand. Move your finger or cursor across an artwork — the glint follows.
Pulled by hand,
never twice alike
Russell Young owns one of Andy Warhol's screenprinting presses. Each canvas is pulled by hand, screen by screen, then covered with crystals pressed one by one into the surface while it is still wet. That is what makes every piece unique — and impossible to reproduce.
- The image A press photograph, often forgotten. Young looks for the moment the icon falters: Marilyn in tears, Bardot in flight, Dean a few months before the crash.
- The pull Hand-pulled screenprint on linen, layer by layer. The gesture leaves its mark: misregistrations, drips, uneven densities — nothing is mechanical.
- The crystal Diamond dust is pressed into the surface while it is still wet. It colours nothing: it decides how the light leaves the canvas.
- The unique piece No edition, no numbered run on these canvases: each is signed and dated on the verso, and exists in one example only.
Two families live side by side in his work: the Icons, where the star becomes America's mirror, and Flowers, where he takes up the still lifes of the Dutch Golden Age — same blooms, same vanitas.
A private viewing,
for you alone
Our gallerists receive you in Paris. For the space of an appointment, the artworks are seen in the light of our rooms: estimate, provenance, hanging and financing are then discussed as they should be — in front of the work itself.
- Left Bank
- 19 rue Mazarine, Paris 6th
- Right Bank
- 15 rue de Miromesnil, Paris 8th
- Opening hours
- Monday to Saturday, 10 am – 6.30 pm
- Reply
- Within one business day, from a gallerist
Fame,
and its crack
Russell Young, born in 1959 in Yorkshire, is a British-American artist whose large-scale screenprints interrogate fame, cultural icons and the American Dream. A photographer of London's nightlife before he was a painter — R.E.M., Morrissey, Björk, Bruce Springsteen — he turned to fine art in the early 2000s and invented his own language: the icon pulled by hand, lifted with diamond dust.
From fame to the fracture
His subject is never the star, but what we project onto her. Marilyn in tears, Bardot in flight, Dean a few months before the crash: Young chooses the moment the myth cracks, and pulls it at a scale you cannot look away from.
The crystal as a lure
Diamond dust is no ornament. It seduces first — the eye comes for the glint — then it holds you: you stay in front of an image of mourning because it shines. Young calls this glamorising any image, and makes it the subject of the work itself.
Two families
The Icons on one side, where America looks at itself through its stars. Flowers on the other, taking up the still lifes of the Dutch Golden Age: same blooms, same vanitas, four colours pulled by hand on archival paper.
Warhol's lineage
Young works on a screenprinting press that once belonged to Andy Warhol. The descent is claimed but displaced: where Warhol recorded fame, Young shows its price — adding an emotional charge that sixties pop art refused.
Why Russell Young belongs in a collection
His works are held by the Albertina Museum, the Getty, the Saatchi Collection and the White House, and have sold at Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips. Each canvas is a unique piece: the standing of an established artist, without the dilution of an edition.
Request an estimate
A gallerist replies within one business day, with the estimate, the availability and the acquisition terms for each artwork.
Side by side on one wall, hung 4 ft 11 in from the floor as in the gallery.
Your selection The artworks you add gather in a bar at the foot of the page. From there you can compare them at true scale on a wall, request a single estimate for them all, or share the selection by link.