Heather Renée Russ (she/they) works across experimental photography, installation and bio-art. Her multidisciplinary practice incorporates queer femme signifiers and organic materials into works that engage with queer ecologies, femme labor and climate grief. 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. Stewarding spaces for queer artists in ever-shifting environments directly informs her work.
Russ has upcoming solo exhibitions at NARS Foundation in NYC and SUNY Old Westbury and will be included in Solastalgia at Kleefeld Contemporary in Long Beach. Russ has shown with Field Projects in NYC, SPRING/BREAK Art Show NYC, NADA Miami with Paradice Palase, IMT Gallery in London, SoMos in Berlin, and Satellite Art Fair in Miami. She has also exhibited at apexart, Flux Factory, ChaShaMa, and Ethan Cohen’s Kube in New York. Russ has completed residencies at NARS Foundation, MASS MoCA, Wassaic Project, ChaShaMa North, TransBorder Art on Governors Island, and Vermont Studio Center. Russ is a member of the EFA Studio Program where she has her studio in Manhattan.
Studio shot of Heather Renée Russ at MASS MoCA residency 2022