Although her training and background was primarily focused on ceramic vessels and sculpture, Bethany Rusen now draws on a wide variety of interests, materials, theories, and personal histories to construct her mixed media site-responsive sculptural objects. Her work seeks to explore the visceral and emotional aspects of body experience.

Rusen was an artist-in-residence at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in Houston, Texas, from July 2005 to February 2006. She graduated with a BFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 2003, and earned her MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth in 2010. She currently lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

To download Bethany's CV in pdf format, please click here.

To download Bethany's teaching philosophy in pdf format, please click here.

"Bethany Rusen's [work is] so familiar, yet alien and the material seemingly has been pushed to its limits and then left raw and vulnerable to its contents." (Elaine Henry)

"I'm drawn to works that have a haunting presence and anthropomorphic gesture. But also, I grew to love this piece during installation. Constructed of a nylon fabric stuffed with polyfill, then dipped in clay slip, the forms are awkward, pliable and yet also brittle when handled. On the wall I have a similar reaction to the work as when I held it, and I enjoy that those two interactions complement each other." (Anna Walker, curator at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft)