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I’m a self-taught artist, and my practice has always been firmly rooted in photography. While I’ve been an artist for over 25 years, my working background has been in the construction field, carpentry, and woodworking. This led to the incorporation of sculptural elements that were used in the photographs; often standing in for the subject of the final photograph. I also incorporate ecological interventions to the work that oftentimes require long periods of planting seeds and caretaking the plants until they’re ready to be photographed. My practice runs counter to many photographers as I oftentimes plan for the timeline of making work according to the seasons as opposed to a spontaneous act of image making.
My work is deeply informed by the intersection of philosophy, theory, science, and art—an approach that allows me to view the world through a prism of possibility while questioning and unlearning harmful, outdated social structures. Science fiction has long served as a guiding framework for me, offering a vision of how we might shape the future by first imagining it. In creating fictionalized versions of the future, we take the first step toward manifesting it into reality.
Much of my photography practice involves practical or in-camera effects, where I use materials like sculpture, lighting, wires, HIV medication, and mirrors to push the boundaries of what photography is capable of and to evoke a sense of magical realism. By creating physical moments of impossibility sans digital editing, I invite viewers to consider alternative realities and expanded possibilities. My work seeks to capture the joy and wonder of existence, offering glimpses of both the present and a reimagined future.
Each piece that I make carries with it a complex Venn diagram that speaks to my lived experience and hopefully resonates with others in each of those communities. I’ve spent most of my life in a rural, southern setting as a queer man; I’m a Choctaw citizen with a deep and complicated familial history with colonization; I’m an AIDS survivor and a widower; a naturist with a deep love of the Earth and it’s natural elements; a futurist; and an unrelenting optimist with a vision for a loving and more equitable future.
b. 1977 Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Currently lives and works in Dowelltown, Tennessee
email: benjy.russell.photo@gmail.com
instagram @benjyrussellphotos
Solo Exhibitions
2026
“Dreamscapes”, Untitled, Nashville, TN
2025
“The Sun Speaks in The Language of Light”, Slocumb Gallery, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN
“Dark Big Bang”, Tinney Contemporary, Nashville, TN
2023
“There’s a poem in my garden”, Oz Arts, Nashville, TN
2021-2022
“A Cowboy Riding A Beam Of Light”, Dowelltown, TN at the artist’s home
2020
“You’re on new bridges made of home (you found the light in a dark poem), Wilder, Nashville,
TN
2016
“Battlefield of Flowers” Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA
2014
“Soft Butch” Open Gallery, Nashville, TN
2008
“Pomp Kersey and the Battle of Short Mountain” Mainsite Contemporary Art, Norman, OK
2007
“It Ain’t That I Wouldn’t like to Stay” Pool Gallery, Berlin
2005
Mainsite Contemporary Art, Norman, OK
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026
“time.place.”, The Emporium, Knoxville, TN
2025
“The Sea and the Sky, and You and I”, The Shepherd, Detroit, Michigan
“Indigenash”, The Forge, Nashville, TN
2024
“Assembly 2024: Horizon Scanning”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Arlington, VA
“Divine Light”, The Browsing Room Gallery, Nashville, TN
2023
“Linger, Dash, Talk”, Cement Fondu, Sydney, Australia
“Tempest”, Tinney Contemporary, Nashville, TN
2022
“This skin I’m in”, Revolve Gallery, Asheville, NC and Tipton Gallery, Johnson City, TN
“The future is female”, 21C Museum, Nashville, TN
2021
“Click! Photography Festival”, VAE, Raleigh, NC
“Futurephilia”, Adult Contemporary, Nashville, TN
2020
“New Paradigm”, Julia Martin Gallery, Nashville, TN
“Healing Feeling”, Dominique Gallery and Push Projects, via Artsy
2019
“Sleep Eazy”, Wilder, Nashville, TN
2018
“Godbottom”, Inferno, Brooklyn, NY
“Blackdove”, Red Dot Art Fair, Miami, FL
“Calicornucopia”, Calico, Brooklyn, NY
2017
“The Likes of Us”, Growroom Showroom, Brooklyn, NY
“Good Mourning Tis of Thee”, Co-Lab, Austin, TX
2016
“Are you loathsome” Video Revival, Brooklyn, NY
“Triple Fantasy” Third Man Records, Nashville, TN
2015
“Sightlines” The Packing Plant, Nashville, TN
“Flag Show” Club Roar, Nashville, TN
2014
“Written in the Stars” Antelope Valley College Art Gallery, Lancaster, CA
“Re-Think Environment” Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA
2013
“Passages” Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York City, NY
“Polari” Mo-Wave, Seattle, WA
2012
“Midnight Salon” Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2011
“Golden” La Petite Mort Gallery, Ottawa, Canada
2010
“A Feast of Fools” Second Floor, Brooklyn, NY
“Private Investigation” Mastodon Mesa, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA
“At Least a Hundred Words” Pool Gallery, Berlin
2009
NADA Art Fair, Miami, FL with Pool Gallery (Berlin)
2008
“Polychromatic Dreams for Future Memories (This World is so Jacked)” Liberty Art Center,
Liberty, TN
2006
“You Must Create” Pool Gallery, Berlin
Lectures/Panels
2026
Queering Death, Vanderbilt Divinity School, Nashville, TN
National Network of Public Health Institutes conference, Nashville, TN
2025
Radical Living and Growing an Art Practice Outside of Existing Paradigms, Belmont University, Nashville, TN
Artist Talk, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN
DARK BIG BANG, artist talks, Tinney Contemporary, Nashville, TN
2023
Keynote Speaker for Vanderbilt University’s Ruby Gala Fundraiser for HIV/AIDS
2022
Queer Native Artists: Art and Advocacy, hosted by Vanderbilt University
Cultivating Queerness: Artistic Practice in Rural Spaces, hosted by Amplify Arts
2021
“Futurephilia”, artists panel discussion moderated by Laura Hutson Hunter
2021
Artist Lecture, CECA and Austin Peay State University
2017
“On death, grief, and ritual”, panel member, Co-Lab Projects, Austin, TX
2016
Guest Lecturer at Temple University, Tyler School of Art
2015
Guest Lecturer at Brooklyn College, Film School
Grants and Awards
2025
Harpo Foundation Native American Artist Residency at Vermont Studio Center
2024
Current Art Fund Grant recipient, Tri Star Arts and the Andy Warhol Foundation
2020
Tennessee Artist Fellowship, CECA, Austin Peay State University
1996
National Scholastic Art and writing Awards, Gold Key recipient
1995
Red Earth Festival First Place Youth, Painting/Drawing category, Oklahoma City, OK
Five Civilized Tribes Student Art Show, First Place, Muscogee, OK
Bibliography
2025
“Told From a Future Tense; The Work of Benjy Russell”, Burnaway Magazine, August 2025
2024
“Choctaw Artist Benjy Russell Creates Utopias in the Rural South”, Nashville Scene, November 2024
2022
“I reached for your hand and we swam through stars”, Approximate Press, Chattanooga, TN
2020
“At Wilder, Artist Benjy Russell Imagines a Radical Queer Utopia”, Nashville Scene, March
2020
“Best Photography Exhibition; Benjy Russell’s You’re on new bridges made of home (you
found the light in a dark poem”, Nashville Scene, “Best of” issue, October 2020
2019
Time is the thing a body moves through, T Fleischman, Coffee House Press
2018
“Check out Benjy Russell’s artwork”, Voyage LA, March 2018
2017
“The 2017 Sleight of Hand Exhibition”, LENSCRATCH, June 2017
2016
“Hazing the Muse by Benjy Russell and Rya Kleinpeter, shot in rural Tennessee”, Autre
Magazine, January 2016
2014
Oxford American, Cover, Issue 84, spring 2014
“Projections and Perceptions; A look into Benjy Russell’s realities”, This City’s Full, TCF
Presents, July 2014
“Soft Butch by Benjy Russell”, Recaps Magazine, Spring 2014
“10 Questions for Artist Benjy Russell”, Nashville Scene, September 2014
“Tennessee artist Benjy Russell shows his ‘Soft Butch’ side”, Out & About Nashville, February
2013
“Hazing the Muse part II: Dr. Laurie Weeks interviews Benjy Russell and Rya Kleinpeter”,
Recaps Magazine, Summer 2013
2012
Syzygy, beauty. An essay, cover, T.Fleischman, Sarabande Books
“Benjy Russell”, Camera Club Los Angeles, May 2012
2011
“Down on the farm”, cover, Put A Egg On It, issue 6
2010
Why are you surprised I’m still here, Billy Kaufman, Loudmouth Press
2008
“A sanctuary for freedom of creation, the Liberty Art Camp in rural Tennessee” photo essay by
Luke Gilford for Fake Magazine; commissioned by MUSAC for Frieze Art Fair in London
“50 ways to leave your body”, cover and photo essay, Mean Magazine
2006
BPM Magazine, Cover photo and editorial spread
Collections
East Tennessee State University permanent collection
Fidelity Investments, Pembroke collection
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma acquisition for the Choctaw Casino and Resort in Durant, OK
Austin Peay University permanent collection
Works held in private collections in Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Mexico, and the United States