Sidney Russell

Sidney Russell, a native to San Francisco, does work that reflects the Bay Area’s unique legacy through her experimentation with materials and the interplay between painting, sculpture, large sewn pieces in fabric. In her use of humor and acute criticism of culture, she makes artwork that reflects the age in which she lives. An early mentorship with painter Jay DeFeo, her teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute, and later her graduate studies at UC Berkeley and UC Davis and California College of the Arts further solidified her use of multiple forms of expression. In the late 60s and early 70s, Russell studied at UC Berkeley, where she was involved in the student protest movement and was a member of a feminist art collective.

She worked for 14 years as a union scenic artist for the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, and A.C.T. and movies and television.The time she spent as a scenic artist had a transformative effect on her art practice, as seen in her most recent clothing body on a monumental scale. She has shown nationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Sidney Russell lives and works in San Francisco.