As a lifelong New Yorker and street artist for over a decade, Holin has witnessed the city’s rapidly shifting landscape as developments continually warp and shape the city’s historic neighborhoods. In the wake of New York’s relentless expansion upwards and outwards, valuable public canvases for uncommissioned artists began to disappear as corporate entities started their own guerilla ad campaigns. Rather than compete for space, Holin began reappropriating ads from the street to make his art, subsequently subverting the very system that co-opted the ideas, attitude and spaces that street artists originated.  In this way, Holin’s work both embodies and reflects the themes of consumption, gentrification, and the ephemerality of modern culture and identity.

In my new work I use repurposed newspaper, rubber gloves, masks, rope and other found objects blended with acrylics I create work that emulates the chaotic feeling that is not only in our culture but world wide.  Using current events that grow more overwhelming in the times we live in are chopped and torn apart to give off the feeling of disjointed thoughts.  Pastel color is applied violently as if trying to quell the mounting anxiety causing confusion but like holding back a wave it’s a seeming imposiblilty.

About Lee Russell Holin 

Lee Russell Holin (b. 1976) is based in New York City. He received a B.F.A. in drawing and painting from L.I.U. and an M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art with a drawing concentration. After graduating the academy he spent a decade working with art on the street under the moniker Russell King. He is a featured artist in the book Outdoor Gallery New York City (2014), “15 street art terms you should know” complex (2012), New York Times “East Village Guerilla Art” (2015). Select shows include Red Bull Curates (2012), Tehran to NYC/NYC to Tehran (2014), and Combined Talents at Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (2019).