Russell Young: Diamond Dusted and Star-Studded

Few artists capture the seductive machinery of fame like Russell Young. In this selection of diamond dust screen prints, the British-American artist turns his lens on three figures who defined celebrity itself — Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, and Mick Jagger — rendering each in his signature fusion of silkscreen and crushed glass diamond dust.

Young's process is as glamorous as his subjects. Sourcing archival photographs from the golden ages of Hollywood and rock and roll, he enlarges and screen-prints each image by hand before coating the surface in a veil of diamond dust, a technique famously pioneered by Andy Warhol. The result is an image that literally glitters — shifting with the light, at once radiant and haunting.

There is a duality at the heart of these works. Taylor's violet-eyed poise, Monroe's fragile luminosity, and Jagger's insolent swagger are elevated to the status of modern icons, yet Young's treatment reminds us that fame is a surface: dazzling, brittle, and impossible to hold. In dusting his idols with diamonds, Young both celebrates and interrogates our collective obsession with beauty, excess, and immortality.