Christopher Russell • Artwork

After the Golden Age, first exhibited at Julie Saul Gallery in 2012, consists of 45 ceramic objects on a wooden pedestal designed for the installation. The crowded still life objects, each hand produced, were inspired by art history and the decorative arts, sometimes loosely and sometimes quite specifically. All the objects are glazed white terracotta.

From the exhibition's press release:

"The essential element of the still life is not the golden goblet or the Ming bowl, or even the pile of luxurious fruit. The essential element of the still life is the bug haunting the fruit bowl, the worm that burrows into the surreally beautiful apple. All still life is haunted. It is haunted with desire and greed, with the past and loss, with ostentation and pride. I started the work that has become "After the Golden Age" when I got back to the studio from a trip to Paris. The sadness of beauty and grandeur was very strong there. The world is so beautiful, there are so many beautiful things, but sometimes it all feels cursed".

— Christopher Russell