Viscon Cellars welcomes back local artist Jessie Summa Russo this month with all new works for an exhibition on display from October through December 2024.
Join the artist for the opening during West Seattle Art Walk on Thursday, October 10 from 6-9pm. Snacks and free wine tastings will be provided!
There will also be a closing reception during West Seattle Art Walk on Thursday, December 12th, so save the date.
The pieces in this show are from two collections:
Cosmic Grids, 2022
“In the quantum world, to see something you must disturb it. In the deep quantum world, to see something you must create it.” — Nobel-winning Physicist Frank Wilczek
At its most basic level, our universe exists as a “vibrant energy field” Wilczek calls The Grid. In these mixed media paintings, each square represents a life—some bright, some indistinct, some full of contrast, and some just a brief and incomplete sliver—that belongs to and in the blue-black void of space equally.
Morphetica, 2022-24
These abstract expressionist paintings are inspired by recurring dreamscapes and hypnopompic hallucinations—vivid sensory experiences that occur as a person is waking up from sleep—that I have experienced for as long as I can remember.
“During the pandemic, I began experimenting with the unique topography of oil and cold wax medium; it was love at first scrape,” says Russo. After building up a collage background layer, she paints and etches until the composition evokes a wall plastered with worn posters and ghost graffiti.
Russo was raised by two artists in Somerville, Massachusetts. She studied printmaking and painting at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and illustration at Massachusetts College of Art & Design. Based in West Seattle since 1997, she founded the local venue Skylark Café & Club in 2006 and ran it until 2013. She is currently the Gallery Director at Gallery 110 in downtown Seattle—stop by and say hello the next time you’re in Pioneer Square!
Cosmic Grid Segment 98, 14” x 14”, oil and paper on cradled wood
Dream City, 10” x 10”, oil on canvas
Cave Waterfall, 10” x 10”, oil and paper on canvas
Underwater Lava II, 12” x 10”, oil and paper on upcycled wood