Andre Russell has a new project he's working on, and though I always think his projects are wonderful, this one for some reason really strikes a chord in me. I first saw a post about the project on Instagram which is mostly where I find out about what Andre is doing unless I happen to see him at Mana Contemporary which has been much rarer these days and hasn't been for a long while because of the way all of our lives have changed since the world changed so drastically in March of 2020. But through all of the changes and challenges of this past year and a half, Andre kept working away, helping Gary Lichtenstein Editions to set up an off site screen printing machine in their pop up shop in DUMBO and continuing to work on his own screen printing design projects and those of others.
When I first met Andre, he was printing images on t-shirts and clothing for Only The Arts, his own company that he started to celebrate the arts in the area. He has also designed logos and images and postcards and announcements and programs for ESKFF and other arts organizations and Artists. This new project is celebrating New Jersey as a whole through a series of portraits Andre is taking with people wearing hats he designed with the simple yet powerful logo he created that says "Jersey" with the lettering and word written in a way that is a statement of fact and one that has presence. His skills as a photographer and videographer are excellent, and so his videos and photographs that go along with the project are works of art in themselves. When I first saw the posts about the project and that he was having a pop up art show and shop, I wanted to go see because I knew he was up to something special as he always is.
I hadn't seen him in a while, and when I stopped by the pop up shop and saw how he had arranged the space and his work within it, I felt as if I was walking into another world and one that I wanted to stay in and visit often. He has art prints and limited editions and also the originals for sale of his "Pieces of Paradise" series along with the "Jersey" hats and t-shirts, and there are two large, striking "Jersey" diptychs. Everything in the space was meticulously designed and crafted, and when he walked me through sheer vinyl curtains printed with his "Pieces of Paradise" to the second room I felt like I was on a beautiful adventure. And I was. On the wall of that inner room were a series of prints on black foam board of the portraits he has been taking for the Jersey Matters project. His goal is to find a way to have them printed on the durable all weather vinyl cloth that he was using for curtains in the show and shown prominently in an area such as the Powerhouse Arts District in Jersey City on a chain link fence. He has taken photographic portraits of many local area people, Artists such as Mustart and local business owners. That day he took my portrait wearing a Jersey hat and it is a treasure and a favorite of mine of all of the portraits that have been done of me over the years.
There's something about this project that strikes to the heart of what we all need to hear because underneath the hats and t-shirts, it says that we matter. It's not just about Jersey, it's about the people. Andre is hoping that with publicity the idea can move throughout the country and the world, to help us all see that it's the people who make place and that those people and those places, wherever and whoever they are, matter. As we talked that day and over the days after, he started to develop the idea even further. In a reflection of his original identifying company name is Only The Arts, he began to add the word Art to Jersey Matters and to share the message that Jersey Art Matters. It's the people, it's the place, it's the Art, it's Jersey, it's Miami, it's Boston, it's Portland. It's you, it's me, it's what we do and who we are. Wherever we are and whatever we do, our business, our art and our own self expression matters and helps make the world a place where we all can thrive.
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