Russell
Moses

Land, history and spirituality play a vital role in the work of Otago based artist Russell Moses (b.1948). Moses first came to prominence in the seventies creating large pit-fired ceramic sculpture installations.

Moses practice is site based and includes formal wall works and sculptural projects. He produces series of works that interweave the narratives of the past and present with his particular iconography. His working methods cross a range of disciplines including ceramics, sculpture, painting and printmaking.

Utilising materials and symbols that relate to the environment he is working in, he creates sculptural paintings that are frequently constructed from a series of panels or components. In response to the demolition of Observation Point, Port Chalmers in 1995 he used the site clay to create large rosaries and paintings. Woodchips from the wharf below were used for bark paintings and sculptures.

Peter Simpson described Russell's works as: "Elegant and sombre meditations on deconstructed Otakou (Otago) landscapes.....always characterized by formal elegance, innovative use of materials and strong spirituality of content"

David Eggleton writes that Russell's art:
"emerges from the landcape rather than being superimposed, like a monument on it ....His is an art which sustains itself on a vocabulary of synonyms for nature:abstract minimalism crossed with landscape romanticism."

Dunedin Public Art Gallery held a survey exhibition of Russell's works titled Garden of Light in 2008. Exhibited locally and internationally since 1980, his works are held in public collections throughout NZ. Significant works were included in Art in Dunedin in 1984, ANZART in Auckland 1985 , the South Island Arts Project Public Practices exhibition in 1993 and Southern Lights, Edinburgh 1998.