Heather Renée Russ (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist working across experimental photography and installation. Her practice incorporates queer femme signifiers and organic materials to explore queer geographies, displacement and climate grief, while centering queer joy and systems of care. 

Russ has a solo exhibition next month at Elijah Wheat Showroom in Beacon, New York and will be in a two person booth at SPRING/BREAK Art Show later this month. She presented the solo exhibitions Riis Beach: In Reverberation at NARS Foundation in Brooklyn in 2026 and Tidewrack at State University of New York (SUNY) Old Westbury in 2025. In New York, she has also exhibited with Field Projects, Wassaic Project, Elijah Wheat Showroom, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Underdonk, Flux Factory, and the Every Woman Biennial at Pen & Brush. Her work has also been exhibited at NADA Miami with Paradice Palase, Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum (Cal State Long Beach), IMT Gallery (London), and SoMos (Berlin). 

Russ participated in residencies at Wassaic Project, NARS Foundation, MASS MoCA, ChaNorth, TransBorder Art and Vermont Studio Center and received the Powerhouse Arts Subsidy Award in 2026. 

Russ comes from a rich history of organizing in underground art scenes. She co-directed Lair Fera, a queer collaborative space in Brooklyn. In San Francisco she co-produced Club Feral, a raucous mutual aid queer nightclub. The experience of stewarding spaces for queer artists in ever-shifting environments informs her work.

CV