Betsy ByersFaculty

Betsy Ruth Byers holds a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies with an emphasis in painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Byers is currently a Professor of Art and Art History at Gustavus Adolphus College. She has exhibited at the National Gallery of Scotland, Minnesota Museum of American Art, De Vos Art Museum, Hillstrom Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Intermedia Arts, Guilford Art Center, The Soap Factory, Burnet Gallery in the Le Méridien Chambers Hotel, Augsburg College, and University of Minnesota Morris.  Byers was awarded a 2023 NSF Grant, 2018 Mcknight Professional Mid-Career Artist Grant, as well as a 2015 and 2009 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant. She was featured in the film Painting the Place Between, produced in 2013 by Carbon Mouse Studios and is represented by the Kolman & Reeb Gallery and Rosalux Gallery in Minneapolis.

Byers’ studio practice explores the engagement of the body’s senses with the surrounding environment through abstract painting. She employs painting to raise questions about how we inhabit the world. Her most recent projects, addresses climate change inspired by the rapidly melting glaciers in both the artic and tropical regions.

When Betsy is not teaching or in the studio she enjoys spending time with her husband, Matt, son, Augustus and daughter, Gretel, hiking, camping, and road tripping.

Courses Taught