Bio
I am a queer artist and a proud member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. I was born on the Osage Reservation, but I was raised in a small rural sundown town on the Chickasaw reservation in Oklahoma. For the past 17 years, I have lived in rural Tennessee within an intentional queer community. Living as a gay man in these rural settings can often feel isolating, but I’ve found a vibrant and diverse community of queer and trans people who, together, are reimagining and building the world we want to see.
My work is deeply informed by the intersection of philosophy, science, and art—an approach that allows me to view the world through a prism of possibility, questioning and unlearning harmful, outdated social structures.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 effects, or in-camera effects, where I use materials like sculpture, lighting, wires, 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, 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.
b. 1977 on the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma
Currently lives and works in Dowelltown, Tennessee
email: benjy.russell.photo@gmail.com
instagram @benjyrussellphotos
Solo Exhibitions
2025 “Dark Big Bang”, Tinney Contemporary, Nashville, TN (upcoming)
2023 “There’s a poem in my garden”, Oz Arts, Nashville, TN
2021-22 “A Cowboy Riding A Beam Of Light”, artists’ home, Dowelltown, TN
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
2025 “The Sea and the Sky”, The Shepherd, Detroit, MI (upcoming)
2024 “Assembly 2024: Horizon Scanning”, Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, 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, Ashveville, NC and Tipton Gallery, Johnson City, TN
2021 “Futurephilia”, Adult Contemporary, Nashville, TN
CLICK! Photography Festival, VAE, Raleigh, NC
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
2023 Keynote speaker for Vanderbilt’s Ruby Gala
2022 Queer Native Artists: Art and Advocacy panel hosted by Vanderbilt University
2022 Cultivating Queerness: Artistic Practice In Rural Spaces hosted by Amplify Arts
2021 Futurephilia artist panel moderated by Laura Hutson Hunter
2021 CECA Tennessee Artist Fellowship guest lecture
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
Professional Experience
2023
Juror for Queer/Arts Robert Giard Grant for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Photographers
Juror for Amplify Arts Artists Grants
2021
Founder of The Sterling Residency; an LGBTQIA focused artist residency in rural Dekalb County in Tennessee.
2008-2012
Co-founder of Liberty Art Camp; artist residency in Liberty, Tennessee. We hosted over 30 national and international artists from England, Spain, Canada, New York City, and Los Angeles working in film, sculpture, performance, sound, photography, painting, and multi-disciplinary practices.
Grants and awards
2024 Tri-Star Arts Current Art Fund grantee
2020 CECA Tennessee Artist Fellow
1996 National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Gold Key recipient
1995 Red Earth Festival, First Place Youth category, Painting/Drawing
Bibliography
2022 I reached for your hand and we swam through stars, Benjy Russell, Approximate Press
2020 Yellow, Horsegurl Press
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
Joshua Baker: “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
J Brownell, “Tennessee artist Benjy Russell shows his ‘Soft Butch’ side”, Out & About Nashville, February 2014
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
Collections
Austin Peay University permanent collection
Works held in private collections in Germany, Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United States.