NEW YORK.- “Mixed Bag in Black,” a new solo show by monochrome artist Paul Russo, is to open on October 6, 2007, at Jersey City’s popular Love is the Message (LITM) nightclub art gallery. A reception for the artist, free and open to the public, is scheduled for October 6 at 7 p.m. Fifteen black monochromes, seven of them never before exhibited, have been selected by the artist to hang at LITM, a venue the Hudson Reporter called “a haven for art lovers and locals alike.” The show, Russo’s first solo, runs through November 3, 2007.

Duration, a 30” x 40” canvas, spotlights a new variation on Russo’s obsessive-drip technique. These drips of flat and high-gloss black acrylic paint are worked with a circular design on a flat surface, creating what Russo calls “obsessive-drip spheres.” Not only is the result circular, but the drips themselves are spherical in shape, to effect multi-layered orbs on canvas.

Another new piece, Passione a Mezzanotte (Passion at Midnight), pioneers a “short-drip” obsessive technique in black high-gloss paint. To achieve this technique, Russo laid the canvas flat, dripped penny- and dime-sized globules of paint on the canvas, then hung it to let gravity take over and each drip run to a length of three to four inches. He repeated the process for a total of approximately thirty pattern cycles and five thousand total drips on the canvas. The textured result formed the sultry look and feel he wanted.

The sensual Mrs. Roberta Maywood, a black-washed canvas with grape-like clusters of black globules, was formed by dripping dots of paint from an old two-ounce paint container. After the canvas dried, he placed one heavy dot of paint beneath each cluster, then hung the piece to let gravity take over, creating long, 8”-10” drips that ran down and over the clusters.

Russo says from his studio in Tom’s River, “You can do a lot of things with just one color. I don’t get bored at all. There’s a never-ending variety.” He generally employs various-sized containers such as honey jars, squirt jars and the like to apply the paint. The only time he uses a brush is to paint the first undercoat. From then on, it’s all drip containers, gestures and attaining desired textures.

Previous shows at the Apex Gallery in Asbury Park have been warmly received, particularly his Black Ice series, some of which will be shown at LITM. Viewers are often baffled at first. Russo says, “The first time people look at these, there’s often a ‘What is this?’ double-take before they see the layers of paint, the patterns and repetitions.”

Russo chose black as the antithesis to what he sees constantly in his day job. A painting contractor for nearly 30 years, he is faced on a daily basis with all shades of white. For his art, he only works with house paint, as did Jackson Pollack, whose work first triggered Russo’s imagination and led him to begin painting on canvas.

Russo works in monochromes because he was inspired by the originators of the art form, Kazimir Malevich in particular, the Ukrainian artist who pioneered the theory behind what monochromes offer the viewer. Malevich wrote in his book The Non-Objective World that what the medium strives for is “the supremacy of pure feeling in creative art.” Russo also admires the work of Ad Reinhardt and Pierre Soulanges, both influential 20th-century monochrome artists.