Russell Panczenko, creates highly detailed, poetic, and luminous botanic imagery. The artist seeks out unique combinations and symbiotic relationships of flora in gardens across the country to photograph. His finished imagery effortlessly likens itself to historical still-life paintings of the past. It is only since his retirement from the Chazen Museum in September of 2017, that Panczenko has been able to fully indulge his passion for the making of photographic images. He began to seriously photograph flowers, in the spring 0f 2018. He began in the gardens of neighbors, then at home purchasing flowers at local florists, and in formal conservatories such as that at Olbrich Gardens, in Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago Botanical Garden in Illinois, and the National Botanical Gardens in Dublin, Ireland. A self-taught photographer, Panczenko does not pretend to be an expert botanist. Instead, he seeks to create beautiful images focusing on the subtle graphic qualities of the selected plant and/or emulate the still-life paintings of the historical past. 

Panczenko was the director and chief curator of the Chazen Museum of Art from 1984 until his retirement in 2017. During his tenure, he grew the Chazen collection through acquisitions and gifts, from approximately 12,000 objects to more than 20,000, making it the second-largest collection of art in Wisconsin. 

Panczenko received his Ph.D. in Art History from the Universita Degli Studi Di Firenze, in Florence, Italy, and his B.A. in Classics from Fairfield University, Connecticut.