Arcadia Contemporary | 6/5-6/29 | New York, NY

High Drama

Arcadia Contemporary presents striking new works by Alex Russell Flint

A cinematic sense of drama, often with a whiff of scandal, pervades British artist Alex Russell Flint’s paintings. Highly narrative in nature, the questions they summon come fast and furious. Is the supine woman’s dress going to go up in flames from the cigarette about to fall from her fingertips? Is the lifeless woman with an old-fashioned phone limply hanging from its cord, dead? The juxtaposition of elegant women who seem like they have lost the will to resist submission, with sinister details—bandaged wrists, a drip of blood trickling down from a scraped knee, a balled-up bloodied tissue—heightens the effect.

Leda (study), oil on linen panel, 23 x 35"

“I like mixing the elegant with the mundane because it creates a bit of friction—it makes the viewer stop and look again,” says Russell Flint. Referring to his new works The Dance and Consumed II, he continues, “The gloves or the tissue pull the image out of fantasy and give it a human edge. They add tension, a kind of twist that keeps the painting from becoming too polished or predictable. I like to create images that while beautiful are slightly jarring and unsettling.”

The figure is central in his work but the surrounding scene is the main driver of the narrative. “I’m drawn to the human figure because it can tell a story without saying a word,” he says. “A small shift in posture or a particular gesture can carry emotion, tension or mystery. It’s a way for me to explore ideas about vulnerability, strength and what it means to be human.

Cut, oil on canvas, 23 x 36"

“For me, a strong figurative painting is one that captures your attention and draws you in—not just in how it’s painted, but in the feeling it gives. It should make you pause. It should make you feel something, even if you’re not sure what that is right away.”

To add to the mystery, Russell Flint often leaves the woman’s head completely out of the frame, or obscured in some way. “Not showing the face makes it less specific, more open,” he explains. “It lets viewers step into the image and bring their own thoughts to it…when you can’t read a facial expression, you look at the body, the surroundings, the mood. That’s where the real story is.”

The Dance, oil on canvas, 20 x 24"

Russell Flint describes his work as “contemporary classicism with a twist.” It is rooted in classical painting principles, “but I like to bring in modern elements that feel unexpected,” he says. “It could be a prop, a pose or something slightly off in the atmosphere. The ‘twist’ is what keeps it alive for me. It pulls the image into the present and makes it feel a little strange, a little unsettled.”

The Starlet, oil on canvas, 30 x 42"

Russell Flint does take a cinematic approach to his paintings, often thinking of them as stills from a film. He considers lighting, mood and composition—what to include and what to leave out—similar to the way a filmmaker might.

“I’ve always been drawn to open-ended stories—ones where something has happened, or is about to, but you’re not told exactly what,” he shares. “I like moments that feel private or in-between. A painting isn’t a full scene, it’s a fragment. I try to make that fragment feel meaningful, like it belongs to a larger story you’re invited to imagine.”

Reflecting, oil on canvas, 27 x 20"

Each of his paintings start with a loose idea or a feeling. Sometimes it’s something he’s seen or a small moment he wants to explore. Then he stages the scene, takes reference photos, while experimenting with light, fabric and posture. From there, he works out the composition as he paints. Through that process the painting changes as he strives to attain the right tension or stillness he’s after.

“I’m trying to capture something just under the surface—something not fully explained,” he says. “If the viewer feels a kind of atmosphere, a moment of pause, or a tension they can’t quite name, then I’ve done what I set out to do. I don’t want to give all the answers—I want people to step into the scene and feel like there’s more to it than meets the eye.”