CLEAN GRIT

Christina Ballantyne (b. 1990, Houston, TX) is a Los Angeles-based artist working in painting and sculpture. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021 where she was recipient of the Helen Frankenthaler award. Solo and two-person exhibitions include Hair & Nails (Minneapolis, MN), Sulk (Chicago, IL), Martha’s Contemporary (Austin, TX), Julius Caesar (Chicago, IL), and Car Wash (Houston, TX). Group exhibitions include Felix Art Fair (Los Angeles), Make Room LA (Los Angeles, CA), Andrew Raefacz (Chicago, IL), Research House for Asian Art (Chicago, IL), and ro art services (Chicago, IL). Maisie Corl (b. 2002, NYC) is an artist based in New York City. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2025. Recent exhibitions include Hobart and William Smith Colleges, (Geneva, NY), hardboiled (NYC), and GURE (Chicago). Michelle Grabner (b. 1962, Oshkosh, WI) Lives and works in Milwaukee, Chicago, and Waupaca County, WI as an artist, writer and curator. She co-curated the 2014 Whitney Biennial and was the Artistic Director for the inaugural 2018 FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art. Her practice spans a variety of media including drawing, painting, and sculpture, and finds a creative center in operating across platforms and towards community. Her work has been the subject of several national museum surveys. She is presently represented by James Cohan, New York and Green Gallery, Milwaukee, among others. Grabner is the Crown Family Professor of Art and the Senior Chair of the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has taught since 1996. She has also held teaching appointments at The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cranbrook Academy of Art; Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts—Bard College; Yale University School of Art; and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine. Rodrigo Lara Zendajas (b. 1981, Mexico) is an artist and educator living and working in Chicago. He received his MFA from SAIC in 2013, and his BFA in 2003 from Universidad de Guanajuato in Mexico. He is currently Assistant Professor and Area Head of the Ceramics Department at University of Notre Dame. Lara has had solo exhibitions at institutions including the Museo de Arte Moderno in the state of Mexico; Museo de la Ciudad in Querétaro, Mexico; Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago; the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago; C.G. Boerner in New York City; Kruger Gallery in Marfa, Texas; The Mission Projects in Chicago; among others. Lara has two monographs of his work, Máscaras y Artefactos and Memorials. He won the first price in sculpture at the Premio Nacional de las Artes Visuales in Mexico in 2010. He has received several awards including: IAPG, DCASE, Chicago; Proyectos Especiales and Jóvenes Creadores, FONCA, Mexico City; Emerging Artist Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation, NYC; James Nelson Raymond Fellowship, 2013 SAIC; PECDA Estudios en el extranjero, IQCA; International Graduate Scholarship, SAIC; and the John W. Kurtich Travel Scholarship, SAIC, Berlin/Kassel, Germany, among others. He currently lives and works in Chicago. Patrick Carlin Mohundro (b. 1985, Wisconsin) grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula before moving to New York where he lives as as an artist, organizer and educator. Mohundro founded P.A.D. (Project Art Distribution) while attending Hunter College’s MFA program, which he completed in 2019, and is currently a member of ESSEX FLOWERS. He is the recipient of NYFA and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency grants and has received awards from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (NY, 2011), Salem Art Works (NY, 2012), St. Nicks Alliance’s Arts@Renaissance (NY, 2013), Incheon Art Platform (Seoul, 2014), the Founding Fellowship at Offshore Residency (ME, 2016), famous chimps’ artist-in-residence program (Ridgewood, 2019), Carrizozo Arts (NM, 2021), and A-Z West Artist (CA, 2021). Recent solo exhibitions include Lonesome Dove (NY, 2023) and Collar Works (NY, 2023) and exhibited at the Finnish Cultural Institute (NY, 2023), International Objects (NY, 2023), and O’Flaherty’s (NY, 2022). Dylan Rabe (b. 1989, Chicago) is an artist and educator living and working in Chicago. He received his BFA from the School of the Art institute of Chicago in 2011, where he later continued for his MFA which he attained in 2014. He is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at SAIC. Solo and two-person exhibitions include the Beverly Arts Center (Chicago) and Rare Visions (Boulder, CO). Recent group exhibitions include the Bridgeport Art Center, Purple Window Gallery, the Research House for Asian Art, Julius Caesar, and Iceberg Projects, all in Chicago. Kellie Romany (b. 1985, Trinidad and Tobago) is a painter living and working in Chicago. Romany attained her BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2008, and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. Known for abstract paintings with a skin-toned pallet, Romany combines bodily representation, materiality, and histories of process-based painting to generate conversation on the societal underpinnings of femininity, race, and connection. Romany has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including museum shows at the High Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and DePaul Art Museum. Her work has been acquired by the High Museum of Art and the University of Southern Indiana. David Sprecher (b. 1983, NYC) is an artist, writer and educator based in Chicago. He attained his BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2006, and his MFA from Northwestern in 2016. He teaches sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Academy for the Arts, and integrates art education into public primary schools through The Chicago Arts Partnership in Education. Recent exhibitions include Earthly Delights at Julius Caesar, Chicago; Organs of Little Importance at Kobo Chika Gallery, Tokyo; Roaming Stone for the 2022 4Ground Sculpture Biennial, Minneapolis; and Social, a two-person exhibition with Justine Chance at Apparatus Projects. He's published writing in the Brooklyn Rail, Columbia Journal and Chicago Artist Writers and is a cofounder of the design collective ESSAY. Emily Wisniewski (b. 1996 in Phoenix, AZ) lives and works in Brooklyn. She received her BFA from Northern Arizona University in 2018 and studied at the Studio Arts College International in Italy before attending The LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting at Maryland Institute College of Art where she completed her MFA in 2023. Grants and awards include a Fellowship from the Hoffberger Family Foundation, “The Shape of We Are" from New Bedford Art Museum, "See the Sea Change Art and Technology Award," and the "WAAVE Foundation Female Art and Technology Award" in 2025. Recent group exhibitions include New Bedford Art Museum, Le Blanc Space, Museum of Modern Art U Cara, the Peale Museum, MassArt, Amos Eno Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Flagstaff, and Baltimore City Hall. Her recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Ghost Machine, Gateway Gallery and Cotyledon Gallery, and her selection for residencies include Art Farm in Nebraska and Art Cake in New York.