Catherine Russ works across collage, drawing, painting, and installation. Her multidisciplinary practice navigates the intersections of memory, material, and language.

Informed by a background in writing, she works with found imagery, text fragments, and materials — including magazines, charcoal, and paint — to construct layered compositions. Her practice explores narrative, repetition, and the tension between presence and absence.

She lives in Ōtautahi Christchurch with her husband Dean, their three sons and an aging springer spaniel.

Recent Work

Recently, Catherine’s work was included in Other People’s Parties a group exhibition at the Quiet Dog Gallery in Whakatū Nelson.

In early 2025, she undertook a sustained daily collage practice, producing a body of work that deepened her inquiry into surface, rhythm, and fragmentation.

Her essay Dog Days was highly commended in the Landfall Essay Competition and published, alongside an accompanying collage, in Strong Words 4 (Otago University Press, 2025).

Her process is intuitive and material-led, a negotiation between precision and chance, erasure and accumulation.

Alongside her studio practice, she leads small-group workshops that explore material, memory and process.

Education

She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts, a Diploma in Creative Writing, and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters.

Her background in image and language informs a practice shaped by storytelling, memory, and the tactile qualities of the everyday.

Her work is held in private collections.