Martha Russo (b. 1962, Milford, Connecticut) earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in developmental biology and psychology in 1985 from Princeton University in New Jersey. While vying for a spot on the 1984 United States Olympic field hockey team, she suffered a career-ending injury. After recovering from surgery, Russo was attracted to the physical nature of sculpture and ceramics. She began studying studio arts in Florence, Italy, and continued studying ceramics at Princeton University. In 1996, she earned her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Colorado Boulder.  

Russo has exhibited her sculptures and installations nationally in many venues, including the Allan Stone Gallery in New York City, the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver, the Miami Project, and the Santa Fe Art Institute. In 2016, her work was the focus of a 25-year retrospective at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Boulder, Colorado. Russo’s works are in many private and public collections, including the Denver Art Museum, and she has public art pieces in Denver, Castle Rock, and Fort Collins, Colorado. 

Another facet to her studio practice is exhibiting her two-dimensional works with the Artnauts, a socially- and politically based art collective. With the Artnauts, her works have been in 292 exhibitions in 24 countries, and for the last twelve years, Russo has served as the board president of the non-profit collective. Russo also serves on the boards of directors of the Scintilla Foundation and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art + Swoon International Residency Program.

In addition to her studio practice, Russo is a lecturer at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Art and Art History Department and the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Prior to her current appointment, she taught at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design in Denver for 18 years. She lives in the mountains northwest of Boulder, Colorado, with her husband, Joe Ryan, where they raised their daughter Odelia and son Henry.