Rebecca Migdal, Brooklyn Papers/Go Brooklyn (May 13, 2006), writing on the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition's 14th Annual Spring Art Show:
"…see the work of over 300 local artists. One of these, Russell Mehlman, is among the borough's premier primitive artists. Mehlman's paintings document everyday life, blending the ordinary with the surreal. His stiff, clumsy figures appear wrapped in ennui, with lifeless limbs. Yet the faces have a dreamlike emotional power. The streets, living rooms and kitchens, in which the figures are posed like dolls, are vibrantly composed. Mehlman's scenes are meticulously recorded, yet the artist paints primarily from memory."

Helen Harrison, The New York Times (11/21/99), writing on the Smithtown Arts Council's 24th Annual Juried Competition:
"Second place went to Russell Mehlman's painting 'Scared Cat,' an anthropomorphic creature that bears a marked resemblance to the puzzled character in Mr. Mehlman's other entry, 'Finding the Right Word.' Both images combine the reductive treatment of everyday surroundings with more nuanced handling of facial expressions to create an air of psychological tension."

Wayne Lempka, The Poughkeepsie Journal (10/10/97) described my work as:
"…intimate looks into the emotional lives of people as they go about their daily existence… Whether they are placed in an apartment interior or in a more fantasy-like situation, they are all portrayed as subdued and lifeless. Yet, the power of this artist's style lies in the fact that through this lifelessness, an intriguing environment is created"

Richard Huntington, The Buffalo News (9/1/95) writing on the Carnegie Art Center's Third Annual, National Juried Exhibition:
"In my estimation, Brooklyn artist Mehlman is the star of the show. He seems a canny artist and yet exhibits the odd distortions of the folk artist. The mood of 'Repressed Memory' is one of low-level horror (the couple is after all doing something weird with that baby), the kind of dread that the surrealists saw in everyday life. But the allusion to a folk art innocence magnifies the calm weight and conviction of Giotto's tragic figures."