Betty Russ is an artist and arts worker living on Bundjalung country / Lismore. Working across sculpture, assemblage, installation, sound, and embodied research. Her practice ferments between and around the philosophies and renderings of eschatological terror, speculative +/ science fiction, hauntology, spirituality, the-weird-and-the-eerie. Material manifestations protrude from hypnagogic subconscious fantasy, searching for psychological mitigation to the abject shock of the past, and sweaty white-knuckled fear of the future.
Betty is co-founder and director of Elevator ARI, an emerging artist-run gallery and studio space, and the Groundfloor Initiative. The Groundfloor Initiative is a NSW wide organisation, bringing regional artists and ARI’s, together with metropolitan based organisations, to sustain and elevate the work of regional artists and arts workers, and create cross country networks for critical and artistic engagement and development. The next iteration of Groundfloor will be held in Kandos, NSW, in March 2024.
AWARDS / PRIZES / GRANTS
2023 Regional Arts Fund Project Grant (Groundfloor Initiative)
2023 Regional Arts Quick Response (individual)
2023 CLIRP - Major Infrastructure Grant - Create NSW (Elevator ARI)
2021 Regional Arts Fund, CTA Flash Marketing Grant (Elevator ARI)
2021 Arts Northern Rivers Micro Grant (Individual)
2021 Arts Northern Rivers Micro Grant (Elevator ARI)
2021 107 Projects Cultural Strategy Grant Recipient (Elevator ARI)
2021 NSW Club Grants recipient (Elevator ARI)
2021 Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups (collaboration with Dani Zuvella)
2020 Southern Cross University Award for Academic Excellence
2019 Joya AIR, Artists Residency, Spain
2019 Northern Rivers Community Art Gallery Prize for SCU Graduate
2017 Regional Arts NSW Quick Response Grant
2014 The Red Rattler Creative Grant
EDUCATION
2021 Disability Confidence Training Course, Accessible Arts
2020 Bachelor of Art and Design, Southern Cross University, Lismore
2012 Certificate IV Screen Media, Metroscreen, Sydney
2010 Certificate IV Theatre, Film and Event Design, Enmore Design Centre, Sydney
EXHIBITIONS, PRODUCTION & ARTS WORK
Upcoming 2024 Collaborator, Noise Church, Cementa 2024 (live sound)
Upcoming 2024 Solo show, Bathurst Regional Gallery
Upcoming 2024 Dark Botany, The Herbarium Tales, article, The Royal Botanical Gardens of Sydney (book)
2024 Group show Earth Matters, Lismore Regional Gallery
2023 Interviewer, artist talk with Karla Dickens
2023 Public Art Commission, SITELAB (Arts Northern Rivers + Lismore Regional Gallery)
2023 Group show, Histories - ‘Hypnovegetalian’ at Good Grief Studios - Dark MOFO, nipaluna
2023 Solo show, A Leakage of Wholes (iterations), Firstdraft, Eora
2023 Interviewer, artist talk with Megan Cope
2022 Solo show, A Leakage of Wholes (iterations), Metro Arts, Meanjin
2022 - Ongoing Co-founding Director of Groundfloor Initiative, Regional Artist and ARI forum for strengthening cross regional and regional-metro arts ecosystems
2022 Group show, Steeper Than Legal, Outerspace, Meanjin
2022 Featured Artist, This is Not a Mandate
2021 Public artwork, Shine Festival, Northern Rivers NSW
2019 - Ongoing Co-director and Co-founder, Elevator ARI, Lismore NSW
2021 Panelist, Northern Rivers Creative, Breaking Boundaries Project, Northern Rivers NSW
2021 Solo show, Boundary Myth, Byron School of Art, Mullumbimby NSW
2021 Selection Panelist, Back Alley Gallery + Lismore City Council Arts Strategy
2020 Studio and Production Manager for Megan Cope
2020 Solo show, Northern Rivers Community Gallery, Ballina, NSW
2020 Group show, RADIUS, The Walls, Miami, QLD
2019 Group show, Trains, Planes and Vending Machines, SCU Gallery, Lismore, NSW
2017-18 Curator, Shrines, , Visual Bulk, Hobart, Tasmania
2014 Solo show, Sal et, 107 Projects, Redfern, Sydney
2014-15 Creative Director, 107 Projects, Redfern, Sydney
2014-15 Event Director, Agar Dish, monthly performance-art event, 107 Projects
2015 Curator and Event Manager, The Cold Weather Hunting Lodge, artist market and live
performance event, 107 Projects
2012 -14 Flickerfest festival bar and Event Manager
2012 Art Director, Kettle, short film
2011 Costume designer, I Think Her Name Was Jaqueline, The Lunettes, music video
2009 Curator, M.O.S.T (Marrickville Open Studio Trail)Alpha House Gallery, Newtown, Sydney
2009 Curator, Festival Mata Air Arts and Sustainability Festival, Java, Indonesia
2009 Curator, Knewlodge, international group show, Serial Space, Chippendale, Sydney
2008 Curator, Things I like, memorial group show, Alpha House Gallery
2006-10 Alpha House Artists Cooperative, member, resident, Gallery Director