OVERHANG

An exhibition in collaboration with Goldfinch

I'm delighted to announce “Overhang,” the inaugural exhibition curated under the banner Ro Art Services. Opening Saturday, June 15th with works by Christina Ballantyne, Journie Cirdain, Mel Cook, Peter Fagundo, MJ Lounsberry, Ricardo Partida, Marina Ross, and Jennifer Sullivan, "Overhang" plays on the trope of over-hung, summer group shows by presenting… an over-hung group show. Each artist’s work not only features a strong, individualistic style, but also thoughtful spaces of interiority. Much like auteur directors, these artists combine subject matter, psychology and style to create bodies of work unmistakably their own. The exhibition is on view through July 27th, with regular gallery hours on Fridays and Saturdays, 12-4pm, and by appointment.

Journie Cirdain's "Pricked," 8 x 11 pencil on paper, framed.

As co-director at JC for the last 10 years, I’ve so enjoyed working with so many artists under the Caesar format. Getting to know a new artist with every exhibition, working with them on building an exhibition, creating press releases, documenting the shows, and making their practices visible to a larger community has been not only educational, but immensely meaningful and orienting within the community.

I’m excited to do more of the same work in a new format with ro art services. Under this new framework, I look forward to creating longer term relationships of mutual investment, with a focus on sales and professionalization for the artists I work with. The program looks to combine discrete aspects of an art advisory, artist agency, and bespoke studio management services for a range of underrepresented artists to meet their individual needs. An online component will be opening in the near future, where I look forward to sharing the artists who indulged an idea with faith, support and enthusiasm.

But for now, the first publicly visible iteration of the platform is being exhibited at Goldfinch. Much appreciation to Claudine for the first example of what I hope to continue as an adaptable and collaborative project.

-ro

Christina Ballantyne ( b. 1990, 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 ex- hibitions include Hair & Nails (Minneapolis, MN), Sulk (Chicago, IL), and Martha’s Contempo- rary (Austin, TX). Group exhibitions include Felix Art Fair (Los Angeles), Make Room LA (Los Angeles, CA), Andrew Raefacz (Chicago, IL), and Research House for Asian Art (Chicago, IL). Journie Cirdain (b. 1993, California) makes drawings that explore themes of magic, wildness and the feminine in order to dive deeper into human interaction with the non-human in ways which do not reinforce fantasies of human power or superiority, but instead interpret this relationship as far more complicated and mutually generative. Using graphite on paper, Cirdain utilizes discursive drawing styles in order to engage in different qualities of thought. She earned a BA from the Great Books program at St. John’s College and an MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her most recent solo exhibitions include Memento Vivere at Western Exhibitions in Chicago, and Growing Out at Gallery A in Seattle. Mel Cook (b. 1986, Ohio) received her BFA from Bowling Green State University (2009) and her MFA from Illinois State University (2012). Living and working in Chicago, Cook’s work often invokes the mythology of the witch to explore persecution of m/othering, queerness, and spirituality. Her solo and two person exhibitions include TORRENTIAL HAG at Cleaner Gallery + Projects, Chicago, IL, I NEED A VOICE NOT A BODY at Vital Signs, MKE, Milwaukee, WI, 31 at Yeah Maybe, Minneapolis, MN, Mother of The Clown at Roots and Culture, Chicago, IL, and We Have a Back Room With Other Things at Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL. Selected group exhibitions include Loving Forms, Julius Caesar, Chicago, IL, Somebody Told Me You People Were Crazy at Hathaway Gallery, Atlanta, GA, Painting The Figure Now at Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Wausau, WI, 4 Acts at Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL, Local Comfort at LVL3, Chicago, IL, The Chicago Show at 56 Downing St., Brooklyn, NY, Women Painting Men at Riverside Arts Center, Winter Romance at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Nothing Is Ours But Time at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, IL. Peter Fagundo (b. 1971, Minnesota) has been challenging his relationship to painting for most of his career. His work explores entanglements, interpersonal gymnastics, and challenges brought on by living and a passionate studio practice. He earned his BS from Regis University and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was The Trustee Merit Scholar of 2000. He’s shown recently at Green Gallery and The Suburban in Milwaukee, Shane Campbell and HG Inn in Chicago. He will be in two person show at MLeBlanc in November 2024. MJ Lounsberry (b. 1996) was born in Iowa and grew up in Eagle Valley, Colorado. She received her BFA from SAIC in 2017, and returned for an MFA, which she completed in 2023. Since graduating, Lounsberry lives and works in Chicago as an artist, educator, and yoga instructor. Primarily focused on painting and drawing, her work builds and collapses utopian narratives around figuration. Narratives wander through nature, athletics, and spirituality, with female characters central to the idyllic spaces. They present as not just figure-in-landscape, but emotional landscapes exploring joy, epiphany, and realization. Recent exhibitions include EMPTY SPACES at Young Camelot, Rational Distance at Site Red, Chicago Youth Exhibition at FDC Studios, Rags to Witches at Ragdale Foundation, Still Relevant at Happy Gallery Chicago, Art in Place at CNL Projects, The Pamphlet Show at Patient Info, Tiny Apartment Show at 308, Last Call at Color Club, Women on the Verge at Rhona Hoffman, and Sun Spill at Baby Blue Gallery. Ricardo Partida (b.1990, Mexico) - Chicago based painter received an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois in 2020 and a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2017. Partida’s work interrogates codes of masculinity and explores themes of solitude and intimacy through voyeuristic portraiture . His work examines art history and its representation of male desire, particularly gendered visual language and its relationship to the homoerotic gaze. Partida lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. Marina Ross (b. 1990, Former USSR) creates paintings with a heightened sense of color and touch, referencing icons from the American fairytale The Wizard of Oz (1939). This series began after the artist lost her son in 2022, eschewing difficult subject matter in service of provoking personal/cultural memory. She earned a BFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MFA from the University of Iowa. Her most recent solo exhibitions include ARTRUSS and Baby Blue Gallery in Chicago. Jennifer Sullivan (b. 1978, New York) is a painter who lives and works in Ridgewood, Queens, whose studio-based painting practice evolved from earlier autobiographical performance and video-centered work. She has often described her paintings as a diary and a form of psychoanalysis. Jennifer Sullivan received her BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY and her MFA in Fine Art from Parsons School of Design, New York, NY. Recent solo exhibitions include Original Face at Deli Grocery Gallery, Ridgewood, NY (2022), Sleeper at Turn Gallery, New York, NY (2021), Devotional Paintings at Julius Caesar, Chicago, IL (2020), Exiled Parts at No Place Gallery, Columbus, OH (2019), and the soft animal of your body at Emma Gray HQ, Los Angeles, CA (2018). Sullivan has exhibited widely, including exhibitions at NADA Miami, Peter Blum Gallery, Marinaro, Brennan and Griffin, Rod Barton, Marvin Gardens, Safe Gallery, Klaus Von Nichtsaggend, and the deCordova Museum. Awards include fellowships with Paint School at Shandaken Projects (2020) and the Fine Arts Work Center (2012-13), and residencies at the Lighthouse Works, the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, the Ox-Bow School of Art, and Yaddo. Her work has been reviewed in the NY Times, the Brooklyn Rail, and Art Papers.