Peter Russell was born in Portsmouth (UK) in 1948. A painter and mathematician, he lives in Scotland where he has a studio and works as an artist and teacher. In 1990, he cooperated with Margaret Hunter on the work “Hands” as well as painting his own work “Himmel und Sucher” (Sky and seeker) on the Berlin Wall.
Russell drew the geometric forms in “Hands”, created in cooperation with fellow British artist Margaret Hunter. “Hands” merges with Russell’s own work “Himmel und Sucher” (Sky and seeker) on its right, which shows western consumer products in a shop window. A lobster holding a hammer and sickle satirises the communist symbol. The artist has said that the backpacker in the picture is seeking a spiritual base. The painting comments on the embarrassment that East Germans felt about their nation’s culture after 1989 and suggests that the West imposed a consumerist lifestyle on them.
Russell has a studio in the Scottish town Alloa and works as a teacher and painter. He mounted his first solo exhibition in Scotland in 1984 and has organised shows for Hanging Together, a Scottish artists’ association, since 1994. In 1989 he was a guest artist in Düsseldorf. He has exhibited his work in several German cities and in Poland, also working in Breslau for a time. Russell is involved in artist collectives in several countries.