Born in Detroit, Russ Orlando earned his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. His work has been exhibited across the country, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, Northern Clay Center and MOCAD (The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit). In 2009, he was a recipient of the Kresge Artist Fellowship.  At the 2010 NCECA conference in Philadelphia, he was a panelist on the subject of activating the performance poetics of ceramics. Adjunct professor at Wayne State University, he recently lectured at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and at the University of Tennessee.