black and white bed linen

Roxy Russell

Exploring our relationship with our environment through thread and installation.

What was the last plant you encountered ?

Roxy Russell is a visual artist currently based in Scotland whose work explores our disconnection from nature, using thread and natural materials to reflect on the fragile yet enduring relationship between humans and the environment, merging time, movement, and material in a poetic practice that questions our place within the living world.

Artwork

Hanging by a Thread

Out of the 1600 flowering plant species known in Scotland, 233 of them are vulnerable and considered to be of principal importance for biodiversity conservation.

Golden Trees

Installation in woodland. An invitation to pause, reflect, and reconnect with nature.

Sur un fil

Belgium's endangered plants; calling for awareness, reflection, and action before they disappear.

Notes

Embroidered words on skin.

tell me a story about plants

Plants of Portugal; the endangered plants, the plants we don't notice, the plants that hold stories.

La boutique au 704

Inviting a reflection on the value of nature, art, and unseen work.

Captured

Time imprinted through long-exposure pinhole photography

Les arbres sont fatigués

Inspired by the trees in Quebec; exploitation, destruction, tenderness and fragility. The trees are definitely tired.

Envahissement

A woven intervention in disturbed ecosystems.

Hampes

Flags in transformation, 2018 - 2021

Upon Arrival (They Don't Exist)

Adventures in the Himalayas, 2016 - 2017

Trouvailles

Wonders, attempts and discoveries, 2013 - 2015

Artistic approach and process

A sense of disconnection with the environment is at the core of Roxy Russell's work. A detachment that she feels and observes on a daily basis: the way nature is artificially manipulated, the way trees planted in straight lines, the way only small designated areas are identified where plants can grow freely. Her work reflects questions about our relationship with the living, the cohabitation between human and non-human, the nature – culture dichotomy. How to connect better to plants?

Roxy's main medium is thread for sewing, crocheting and weaving, and other projects also take shape as installations of various materials, often natural elements. Her creative process is characterised by the repetition of a same action. This approach generates a better understanding of how materials react, familiarity of the repeated movement and awareness of her own body. A connection is established. The endurance and patience required imply slowness: a rhythm that contrasts with the pace of our daily lives. Different temporalities meet and merge creating a sense of continuity.

Fascinated by the versatility of thread and textiles, Roxy is constantly exploring new techniques and processes. She chooses to use simple biodegradable materials, found and derived from nature: a limitation that pushes her to find more sustainable solutions to making art.

The tension produced by different contrasts is an integral part of Roxy's work: thread can be as fragile as strand of cotton and as strong as to bind two items together. Her work reflects the complexity of the situation, of the world we live in yet seems simple in conception. The topics Roxy chooses are serious yet her approach is poetic.

Roxy Russell (b. 1988, Edinburgh, Scotland) immigrated to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1998. She graduated from the Valais School of Art (EDHEA, Sierre) in 2013 before participating in exhibitions and residencies across Great Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, Thailand, and India. In 2019, she moved to Quebec, Canada, to pursue a master’s degree in Visual Arts at Laval University, which she completed in 2021. During her time in Canada, she took part in exhibitions such as Fresh Paint / New Construction at Art Mur Gallery (Montreal), DE(S)CONNEXIONS at Le Lobe (Chicoutimi), and presented her solo exhibition The Trees are Tired in Québec. Since returning to Europe in 2022, she has been developing Endangered, a project consisting of embroidered representations of endangered plants based on various national Red Lists. She has exhibited at CAVA Galeria (Viseu, Portugal) and participated in Étoffe(s): Biennale internationale d’art textile contemporain (Verviers, Belgium). She is currently based in North Berwick, Scotland.

Scottish Landscape Awards, July - September 2025

Scottish Arts Trust at Kirkcudbright Galleries, Scotland

La Fête de Mai 2024 organisée par Vagabond’Art, May 2024

Art trail in Gesves, Belgium

Étoffe(s) : Biennale international d'art textile contemporain, October 2023 - April 2024

Le Centre Touristique de la Laine et de la Mode, Verviers, Belgium

TERRARIUM, July 2022

Group exhibition at CAVA Galeria, Viseu, Portugal

Les arbres sont fatigués (The Trees are Tired), July 2022

Individual exhibition shown at the 5th World Congress on Agroforestry at Centre des Congrès de Québec, Quebec, Canada

DE(S)CONNEXIONS, June 2022

Laberge-Russell Collective at Salle d’exposition de l’Université Laval, Pavillon Desjardins, Quebec, Canada

Exposition satellite de la Manif d'art, la biennale de Québec, March 2022

Group exhibition at Roulement à billes, Quebec, Canada

La boutique au 704, December 2021

Individual exhibition at 704 rue sainte-madeleine, Quebec, Canada

Peinture fraîche et nouvelle construction, July 2021

Group exhibition at Art Mûr, Montréal, Canada

Les arbres sont fatigués (The Trees are Tired), October 2021

Individual exhibition at Salle d’exposition de l’Université Laval, Pavillon Desjardins, Quebec, Canada

DE(S)CONNEXIONS, March 2021

Duo with the Laberge-Russell Collective at Le Lobe, Chicoutimi, Canada

Confondre l’espace, January 2021

Duo with Lucie Gagnon at Salle d’exposition de l’Université Laval, Pavillon Desjardins, Quebec, Canada

Parcours d'art sauvage, August 2020

Group exhibition at Coopérative des jardins de Victoria, Saint-Isidore d’Auckland, Quebec, Canada

Mars de la maîtrise, March 2020

Group exhibition at Roulement à billes, Quebec, Canada

OFF-JC, September 2019

Group exhibition at Roulement à billes, Quebec, Canada

Scythia fibre art, the 12th international biennial of contemporary textile art, June 2018

Group Exhibition 
at Ivano-Frankivs'k, Ukraine

Upon Arrival, June 2016

Group Exhibition at OED Gallery, Kerala, India

De Passage, December 2015

Solo exhibition at Le Cabanon, Lausanne, Switzerland

Affordable Art, March 2015

Group exhibition at Swiss Art Space, Lausanne, Switzerland

Freedom to Love, January 2015

Group exhibition at Accademia Apulia, London, England

Artffordable Fair, March 2014

Group exhibition at 13 The Gallery, London, England

Creating Myths, September 2013

Solo exhibition at The Decca, Ness, Scotland

Photography and Illustration, October 2013

Group exhibition at The Exchange, Dublin, Ireland

L’ECAV aux Floralies, October 2013

Group exhibition at Château Mercier, Sierre, Switzerland

Closer, September 2012

Group exhibition at The Exchange, Dublin, Ireland

Iceberg, February 2012

Group installation at The Arctic Centre, Rovaniemi, Finland

Residencies

De Liceiras 18, Temporary Art Community, June 2022

Research and creation residency in Porto, Portugal

Nouaisons, centre agri-culturel (to come)

Research and creation residency 2022 or 2023 in Scott, Quebec, Canada

Le Lobe - Résidence de commissaire, Julie Andrée T., February 2021

Residency with the Laberge-Russell Collective in Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada

Résidence Art sauvage, August 2020

Residency followed by an exhibition at the Coopérative des jardins de Victoria in Saint-Isidore d’Auckland, Quebec, Canada

Carpe Diem Residency, June 2016

Research and creation residency in Kerala, India

ComPeung Artist Residency, May 2016

Research and creation residency in Doi Saket, Thailand

Other projects

Encann' 2022, May 2022

Evénement-bénéfice bisannuel, Regart centre d'artistes en art actuel, Quebec, Canada

Champ libre, September 2020

Land art project, Parc du Boisé-des-Frères-du-Sacré-Cœur, Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada

Les Encans de la quarantaine, May 2020

Selected to participate to an online auction, Online event, Quebec, Canada

University Laval Art School flag contest, September 2020

The gardens of Quebec City Hall, Quebec, Canada

Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year 2014, November 2014

Seascape award – commended

Publication in the book: « Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year 2014, collection 1 »

Christmas card for the Swiss embassy in Washington, November 2011

Exhibitions
Residencies and other events