Roman Susan Art Foundation assembles exploratory art collections in order to place contemporary works of art in the lives of local residents. Community members help maintain and expand the collections, hosting the work, and sharing it with family, friends, and neighbors at their home. At regular intervals, the art is transferred to another host, circulating the works throughout our community. New artwork (and new collections) will be added periodically, putting art in more homes, expanding the narrative from household to household. If you are interested in hosting work, please visit romansusan.org/host.
The first collection RS1 consists of works donated by the Roman Susan board of directors. Vexillum, the second collection, shares artist-made flags and banners. A third collection Foundation features work from artists featured in Roman Susan programming for each year 2012 to present. Community-Hosted Collections Index (PDF).
RS1 is the first collection shared by Roman Susan, introduced in October 2018 with works donated by Roman Susan directors Kristin and Nathan Abhalter Smith, Ruth Hodgins, Siobhan Leonard, Madhuri Shukla, Polly Yates, and Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson. This first collection includes collage, moving image, painting and drawing, photography, and sculpture created between 1959 and 2018.
Kristin Abhalter Smith | Air Dancer: Ekstasis | Nylon textile with fan | Dimensions Variable | 2017 | RS1–01
Air Dancer: Ekstasis was created by Kristin Abhalter Smith for the July 2017 exhibition EKSTASIS at Demo Project in Springfield, Illinois. This soft sculpture is one of a series of characters evoked as a part of Abhalter Smith’s ongoing visual design opera. The work was donated to Roman Susan by the artist in October 2018.
Kristin Abhalter Smith has an MFA in Technical Theatre and Design from the University of Minnesota, and a background working for Theatre and Film Production. As an individual artist, her installation work was featured in in the Soap Factory’s Art Shanty Project, and her sculpture and painting have been exhibited in Chicago at the Peanut Gallery, Art on Armitage, and elsewhere. Kristin has been a visiting artist at the School of the Art Institute, a teaching artist for Woman Made Gallery, and a tutor at the Howard Area Community Center. Abhalter Smith started Roman Susan in 2012, and has been the creative director of the organization since its incorporation in 2016. For more information, please visit kristinabhalter.com.
This work requires electricity and may be hosted outdoors.
Elston Elston | Transparent Geometrics | Paint on illustration board | 34’’ x 24’’ | 1959-60 | RS1–02
Transparent Geometrics by Elston Elston was painted between the summer of 1959 and the winter of 1960. The work was purchased from the Edgewater Antique Mall in September 2017 by Nathan Abhalter Smith, and donated to Roman Susan Art Foundation in October 2018.
Elston Elston (1925-2016) earned a Bachelor degree from Yale, and a Master of Fine Arts in painting and sculpture from the University of Chicago. She taught art in Chicago Public Schools from the late 1940s well into the 1980s, beginning at Austin, Waller, Hyde Park, and Sullivan, before landing at Senn High School for the final 29 years of her career. Elston ran her own art academy for 15 years, and exhibited and sold artwork throughout her lifetime. She was a part of the the group of artists and youth who created the bricolage mosaics that adorn the Lake Shore Drive underpasses at Bryn Mawr, Foster, and Belmont, and a large-scale mural created by Elston can be seen at Senn High School. For more information, visit romansusan.org/elston-elston.
This work requires wall mounting.
Polly Yates | Untitled | Photo collage | 10.75’’ x 9.25’’ | 2013-14 | RS1–03
This work is part of The Landscape Series by Polly Yates, a body of work recontextualizing found travel photographs. Utilizing clean-cut abstraction within familiar, albeit distant photographed scenes, Yates’ repetitive methods draw out subtle estrangements underlying the nature of perception and memory. This work was purchased by Kristin Abhalter in 2015, and donated to Roman Susan Art Foundation by Kristin and Nathan Abhalter Smith in August 2019.
Polly Yates received her Fine Art Sculpture BA at Wimbeldon School of Art in Surrey, and obtained her Fine Art MA at Central Saint Martins, London. Yates organized FOR THE THUNDERCLOUD GENERATION a transient, artist-run window gallery in Edgewater, Chicago. Yates was a member of the Roman Susan Art Foundation Board of Directors from 2016 to 2019 after creating numerous projects with Roman Susan, including a solo exhibition Unhomely (2014) and an artist-led workshop series Draw a line (2014-2015). Yates was a member of the Roman Susan Art Foundation Board of Directors from 2016 to 2019. For more information, please visit pollyyates.com.
This work requires wall mounting.
Joanna Furnans | Genuine Fake Reward | Digital video | 2017 | RS1–04
Genuine Fake Reward was created as a part of the fundraising launch for Genuine Fake – a dance choreographed by Joanna Furnans. The video was first screened at Roman Susan in March 2017, and features Elise Cowin, Tia Greer, Alyssa Gregory, Lindsey Lee, Sarah Ellen Miller, Zachary Nicol, and Amanda Ramirez. The work was donated to Roman Susan Art Foundation by Kristin and Nathan Abhalter Smith in October 2018.
Joanna Furnans is an independent dance artist based in Chicago. She has performed nationally and internationally in the work of fellow independent dance makers and her own work has been supported by the Walker Art Center, the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), Chicago Moving Company and Links Hall. She is co-founder of the Performance Response Journal and a freelance dance writer, contributing to the Windy City Times, Art Intercepts, and See Chicago Dance. Joanna’s practice shows a concern with the multifaceted representation(s) of “self” within the framework of contemporary/experimental dance and traditional performance presentation. Furnans joined the Roman Susan Art Foundation Board of Directors in 2020. For more information, please visit joannafurnans.com.
This work may be screened once every six months. Screenings should be accompanied by a dinner party featuring a program of video works from local dance artists and a discussion centered around independent dance, live performance, and funding structures in Chicago; the dinner will be organized by the host, the video program and discussion may be organized by Roman Susan.
Ruth Hodgins | Forest | Ceramic | 9’’ x 5’’ x 5’’ | 2012 | RS1–05
Forest by Ruth Hodgins is ceramic sculpture inspired by European children's construction toys. The work was donated to Roman Susan Art Foundation in July 2019 as a gift from the artist and the host of Hodgins' initial work in the RS1 collection.
Ruth Hodgins was born and raised in Scotland, moving to the US to pursue training and education in the contemporary arts. She received her BA from the Glasgow School of Art and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She has exhibited at Biennale Internationale de Céramique d'Art, Vallauris, France; Paradox Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Stroud House Gallery, UK. Hodgins is currently an associate curator and archivist at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, overseeing the care, use, and scholarship of the historic Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Hodgins joined the Roman Susan Art Foundation Board of Directors in 2016.
This work requires assembly by the host.
Siobhan Leonard | Unbound | Digital print of video stills | 2013-2019 | RS1–06
Unbound (Capture Community Revisited & Let Free – Excerpt of October 10, 2013) by Siobhan Leonard originates from a public drawing initiative Capture Community Project undertaken at Roman Susan in October 2013. With 80+ contributors creating a portion of the work, Leonard processed daily collaborative drawings into a nine minute stop-motion video. A new iteration of this project compiles the stills from one day – October 10, 2013 – into a single image. The work was donated to Roman Susan Art Foundation by the artist in October 2018.
Siobhan Leonard has a BA in Digital Cinema from DePaul University and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Studio from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is an advocate for arts and education, working as a volunteer for grassroots community initiatives and freelancing as an art handler and videographer in her hometown of Benton Harbor, Michigan. Leonard joined the Roman Susan Art Foundation Board of Directors in 2017.
This work requires wall mounting.
Madhuri Shukla | rabbits and rats | Cut paper, acrylic on paper | 2018 | RS1–07
rabbits and rats was created in September 2018 by Madhuri Shukla specifically for inclusion in this collection, honoring two of the prominent creatures of Rogers Park. The work was donated to Roman Susan Art Foundation by the artist in October 2018.
Madhuri Shukla was born in London, and grew up in Florida. She received a BA in Urban Studies and Fine Art from New College of Florida, and an MA in Theories of Urban Practice at the New School in New York. In Chicago, Shukla was the Managing Director at Chicago Public Art Group. Shukla created two solo exhibitions with Roman Susan – Pedestrian (2013) and Dog Days (2015). Shukla was a member of the Roman Susan Art Foundation Board of Directors from 2016 to 2019. For more information, please visit madhuri.co.
This work requires wall mounting.
Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson | Dishrag Mnemonic | Dishrag from host's home, cotton, water putty, rock from the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal next to Cook County Jail | Dimensions Variable | 2018 | RS1–08
Dishrag Mnemonic by Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson developed from a previous work Liquid Mothers created for a May 2017 exhibition at St. Charles Projects in Baltimore, Maryland. This ongoing performative sculpture morphs from site to site, rock to home, home to soil. At the conclusion of each hosted period, portions of the work are to be returned to the earth, and then remade for each subsequent hosted location. The work was donated to Roman Susan by the artist in October 2018.
Gwyneth Zeleny Anderson received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She teaches photography to teenagers at the Lutz Center for After School Matters, and has taught with many other art institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Ox-Bow School of Art and Artist Residency, Columbia College's Center for Community Arts Partnerships, ArtReach Chicago, and Johns Hopkins University's Baltimore Youth Film Arts. Along with a variety of collaborative projects between 2014-2018, Anderson created the solo exhibition Qualiascope at Roman Susan in November 2014. Zeleny Anderson was a member of the Roman Susan Art Foundation Board of Directors from 2018 to 2019. For more information, please visit gwynethvzanderson.com.
This work requires a dishrag donated by the host, wall mounting, and an afternoon spent outside.
Elizabeth Fiersten and Polly Yates | Paper Plate Series, Floor Piece Nº 1 | Powder coated steel | 16” x 21.5” x 19.5” | 2018 | RS1–03–D2019
Paper Plate Series, Floor Piece Nº 1 was created by The House of Frankie Lou, a collaboration between Elizabeth Fiersten (Manifold) and Polly Yates (numbskullduggery). Their functional sculpture line made its debuted at NeoCon 2018.
Elizabeth Fiersten is a co-owner and operator of Manifold, a studio that has been designing and producing refined metal furniture, sculpture, and accessories since 1999. Manifold houses a manufacturing workshop and storefront gallery at 4426 North Ravenswood Avenue, Chicago. The direct connection between the workshop and the gallery reinforces Manifold's guiding mission: to overtly preserve the link from the object presented to the process of its crafting. For more information, please visit manifoldchicago.com.
This work was deaccessioned back to the artists in August 2019 at their request; the work was replaced in the collection at that time by an untitled photo collage created by Yates from a body of work examining landscape and travel photography.
Ruth Hodgins | Swan | Digital video | 2015 | RS1–05–D2019
Swan by Ruth Hodgins is a digital video filmed on the grounds of the Milngavie Community Library and Education Centre in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The work was first screened as a part of the Streetlight silent video series at Roman Susan in April 2015, and then shown in the current 4 minute version with sound design by Kit Rosenberg in the exhibition Nothing Named Nine Times in August 2015. The work was donated to Roman Susan Art Foundation by the artist in October 2018. The video will be delivered with a Sony Trintron Monitor and DVD player, and plays on a loop.
This work was deaccessioned to the first community host at the request of the artist; the work was replaced in the collection at that time by a ceramic sculpture created by Hodgins in 2012.
Vexillum is the second community-hosted collection created by Roman Susan Art Foundation. Composed of artist-made flags and banners, this collection was introduced in December 2019 with works donated by Carolina Fernandez Del Dago, Nora Moore Lloyd, Nancy Lu Rosenheim, and Liz Weinstein.
Carolina Fernandez Del Dago | Minim | Fabric, paint, thread | 76’’ x 22’’ | 2019 | VX–01
Minim by Carolina Fernandez Del Dago was created for the Fall 2019 season of the Roman Susan series Woman's Club at 7077 North Ashland Boulevard, the location of the former Rogers Park Woman's Club.
Carolina Fernandez Del Dago is a Miami-born Cuban, Barranquilla-raised visual artist. Fernandez Del Dago previously shared with Roman Susan Art Foundation as a part of More Than A Place (2014) and Blueprints (2016). She currently works as a freelance artist and woodworker in Bogotá, Colombia. Her work has been exhibited in Barranquilla, Chicago, London, Prague, and Tucson. Her film and media work have been exhibited in outlets such as Ballroom Projects, BBC Latin America, Canal Telecaribe, Expanded View Cinema, Ex-TV, Las2Orillas, and Cine a La Calle Festival. Fernandez Del Dago attended The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, earning a BFA in Film, Video & New Media and a BA in Visual and Critical Studies in 2014.
This work may be hosted indoors or outdoors.
Nora Moore Lloyd | birchbark, wiigwaas | Print on polyester | 50’’ x 84’’ | 2019 | VX–02
birchbark, wiigwaas was created for the Summer 2019 season of the Roman Susan series Woman's Club at 7077 North Ashland Boulevard, the location of the former Rogers Park Woman's Club. Birchbark is best harvested in springtime, leaving evidence of its departure for the following seasons. Two photographs taken a century apart combine in this summer flag, honoring the indigenous practice of birchbark harvesting in the Midwest, specifically by the Potawatomi and Ojibwe Nations in the Chicagoland area, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Nora Moore Lloyd spent twenty years in the graphic design business and now expresses her passion for photography by focusing on indigenous cultures, nature, and documenting community or family history through traditional storytelling and photos. Moore Lloyd previous shared work with Roman Susan Art Foundation as a part of Property (2017). Her work has been exhibited at American Indian Center, Cahokia Mounds Museum, Chicago History Museum, Comanche National Museum, Field Museum, Mashantucket Pequot Museum, Museo Nacional de Etnografia y Folklore (Bolivia), Museo Nacional de Arqueologia y Ethnologia de Guatemala (Guatemala), State of Illinois Museum Gallery (Champaign, Chicago, Lockport, Springfield, IL), and elsewhere. For more information, please visit nativepics.org.
This work may be hosted indoors or outdoors.
Nancy Lu Rosenheim | Winter Burst the Steam Pipe! | Fabric, thread | 60’’ x 106’’ | 2018 | VX–03
Winter Burst the Steam Pipe! was created for the Winter 2018-19 season of the Roman Susan series Woman's Club at 7077 North Ashland Boulevard, the location of the former Rogers Park Woman's Club. This flag highlights the particular challenge of Chicago's wintertime climate for the aging buildings of our neighborhood, and the difficulties faced by new arrivals to the city unprepared for the harsh conditions. The flag honors the activism of the Rogers Park Woman's Club for its contributions to community welfare. The original settlers’ village of Rogers Park was incorporated in 1873, joining Chicago in 1893 – two years after the founding of RPWC. Throughout the community's history, Rogers Park has been the home to thriving organizations that welcome immigrants and refugees.
Nancy Lu Rosenheim is an interdisciplinary artist who has maintained studio practices in New York City, Granada, Spain and Chicago, IL. Rosenheim has previously shared work with Roman Susan Art Foundation as a part of Community Area One (2014). Selected exhibitions include Slow, Hyde Park Art Center, Dickson Window Project Space, Roman Susan, Fine Arts Gallery of Northeastern Illinois University, Anchorage Museum of Art, Alaska, Galería Cartel and Galería Verlín in Granada, Spain and Singer Sweat Shop in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Rosenheim is founding director of The Bike Room, where she has showcased forty-nine emerging and established artists since 2011. For more information, please visit nancylurosenheim.com.
This work may be hosted indoors or outdoors.
Liz Weinstein | Hot Dog Flag | Print on polyester | 58’’ x 92’’ | 2019 | VX–04
Hot Dog Flag was shared during the Spring 2020 season of the Roman Susan series Woman's Club at 7077 North Ashland Boulevard, the location of the former Rogers Park Woman's Club. The flag was first created for the 2019 Terrain Biennial – sited one mile west of the Oscar Mayer mansion at 1030 Forest Avenue, Evanston.
Born and bred in the Midwest, Liz Weinstein is a photographer, printmaker, doodler, and mycology enthusiast with a BA from Columbia College Chicago and a Masters of Library Science from the U of I Champaign-Urbana. Much of her work is motivated by genealogy, gender, Holocaust studies, folklore and craft, trees, ghosts, slime molds, the Northwoods, and allrecipes.com.
This work may be hosted indoors or outdoors.
Angela Lopez | Bodies of Water | Fabric, thread | 45’’ x 62’’ | 2018 | VX–05
Bodies of Water was created for the Fall 2018 season of the Roman Susan series Woman's Club at 7077 North Ashland Boulevard, the location of the former Rogers Park Woman's Club. Lopez has previously shared work with Roman Susan as one of the organizers of the Extended Practice project Firsts and Starts: Art-Making as a New Mother (2018) and in the moving image series Streetlight (2014-2019).
Angela Lopez has exhibited her work in across the Midwest, including solo exhibitions at Charlotte Street Foundation, Demo Projects, and Wedge Projects, in addition to group exhibitions including the Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art, Hyde Park Art Center, and Centro de Produccion y Edicion Grafica de Buenos Aires in Argentina. She holds a BFA from Kansas City Art Institute, and an MFA from Northwestern University. Lopez is a founder of the artist-led collaborative project Extended Practice. For more information, please visit lopezangela.com.
This work may be shared indoors or outdoors.
Maryam Taghavi | بیست و چهار هفت | Fabric, thread | 36’’ x 54’’ | 2019 | VX–06
بیست و چهار هفت was created for the Winter 2019-2020 season of the Roman Susan series Woman's Club at 7077 North Ashland Boulevard, the location of the former Rogers Park Woman's Club. The flag contains three words in Farsi, which may be translated as: Twenty Four / Seven. Taghavi has previously shared work with Roman Susan through a video installation project Untitled (2018).
Maryam Taghavi is a Tehran-born artist currently residing in Chicago. She employs a post-studio, site-specific practice to weigh and intervene in existing modes of production. She is interested in an interchangeable role as both observer and participant, and locates agency in the role of the trickster. As a maker, she never pretends to be wholly outside of the taxonomies and fantasies produced by art institutional structures. Her work could be seen in a lineage of institutional critique that seeks to demystify and explicate contemporary art’s relationship to labour, production, and discourse. She has exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions such as LAXART, Queens Museum, Exterressa Museum, Chicago Cultural Center, Sullivan Galleries, and Sazmanab Gallery among others. Her work is interdisciplinary, existing in photography, installation, video, publication, drawing, and performance. For more information, please visit maryamtaghavi.com.
This work may be hosted indoors or outdoors.
Kandis Friesen | Nie Täne | Digitally printed flag | 36’’ x 60’’ | 2020 | VX–07
Nie Täne is a digital scan of three stones I carried home, taken from the crumbling foundation of the former Lenin monument in my grandparent’s village of Molochansk, Ukraine. Like an excerpt from a larger text, they stand here flattened into image and blowing in the wind: letters from an opaque alphabet, new teeth with which to speak. Monuments are public architectures, and their stone bases speak a geological time, as if the figures they hold emerge from the earth and history is written in stone. If a flag marks territory or allegiance, let this one mark a fealty to disintegration, a dedication to building in the ruins. When language fails and colonial infrastructures still stand, it is here where new narratives are formed: let them fall, let them fall, we will know what to do with them in the after.
Translated from the oral Russian Mennonite language, Nie Täne means ‘new teeth’.
– Kandis Friesen
The image above is the design for the final work created for Woman's Club. Originally planned for Summer 2020 at 7077 N Ashland Blvd, this work will enter our community-hosted flag collection and debut at a residential address on August 18, 2020. This work may be hosted indoors or outdoors.
Kandis Friesen’s work is anchored in diasporic language, dispersed translations, and disintegrating archival forms. Drawing on Russian Mennonite, Ukrainian, and formerly Soviet geographies, her compositions build from architectural, material, and spectral inhabitations of exile, amplifying minute and myriad histories at once. Her work has been exhibited and screened internationally, at venues including LUX (London, UK), Plug In ICA (Winnipeg, CA), Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, US), MIX (NYC, US), and Festival international du film sur l’art (Montréal, CA). Her videos are distributed by Groupe Intervention Vidéo in Montréal. For more information, please visit kandisfriesen.com.
This work may be hosted indoors or outdoors.
Foundation is the third community-hosted collection created by Roman Susan Art Foundation, introduced on the occasion of Artists Run Chicago 2.0 at Hyde Park Art Center in September 2020, with works by Rebecca Beachy and Christine Wallers, Paté Conaway, Meg Duguid, J. Kent, Thomas Kong, Joelle Mercedes and Amina Ross, Ruby T, and Chanel Chiffon Thomas, representing artist projects from Roman Susan programming, 2012 to present.
Ruby T | Altar for levitating | Ink and beads on paper, wood | 22’’ x 24’’ x 3’’ | 2020 | FN–2012
This work was created by Ruby T for Artists Run Chicago 2.0 as a proxy and sketch for a future community-hosted Mansion Rug Liberation Network floorwork. Ruby T is an artist and educator who holds an MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Fiber and Material Studies, and a BA from New York University. Ruby previously shared work with Roman Susan Art Foundation for Anatomy of a Shrine (2012); Surrounded (2013); Objects (2014); Club (2016); Blueprints (2016); twinskin (2016); and as part of the artist residency program Anette (2016-2017). Ruby T has exhibited work in Chicago at ACRE Projects, The Back Room at Kim’s Corner Food, Iceberg Projects, Occasional Gallery, Randy Alexander, Roots & Culture, Weinberg/Newton, and Western Exhibitions. For more information, please visit rubyt.net.
This work requires wall mounting.
J. Kent | I AM WITHIN MYSELF POETRY | Pencil, edition of 100 | 7.5’’ x .25’’ x .25’’ | 2014 | FN–2013
J. Kent works within the intersections of writing, performance, and sculpture. This work was initially shared and distributed as a part of On the impossibility of a singular hand at Roman Susan in 2014. Kent also shared work with Roman Susan Art Foundation for Saints (2013); Starkfield, Massachusetts (2015); Wild is the Wind (2016); Blueprints (2016); and Prismisms (2018). Kent has exhibited work in Chicago at ACRE Projects, The Back Room at Kim’s Corner Food, DFBRL8R, Links Hall, the Museum of Contemorary Art Chicago, Out of Site Chicago, Roots & Culture, Sector 2337, and other locations. For more information, please visit joshuajjkent.com.
This work is available to individuals until the initial edition is disbursed.
Paté Conaway | The Winter Clef | Guitar and woven cording | 38’’ x 12’’ x 5’’ | 2019 | FN–2014
Paté Conaway is textile artist who practices a self-taught version of crochet to weave sculptural forms with everyday objects, rope, wire and rubber. Paté previously shared work with Roman Susan Art Foundation for Weave! (2014) and Community Area One (2014). Conaway has exhibited work with 6018North, Columbia College, DFBRL8R, Greenleaf Art Center, the Museum of Contemorary Art Chicago, Preston Bradley Center, and Terrain, as well as the Cameron Art Museum in North Carolina, the Isles Arts Initiative in Massachusetts, other locations. For more information, please visit artiststatement.weebly.com.
This work requires a standard outlet plugin, and may be mounted on a wall or positioned as a free-standing sculpture.
Thomas Kong | Untitled | Found materials, sticker | 8’’ x 10’’ x 1’’ | 2019 | FN–2015
Thomas Kong is an artist working in collage and assemblage, using advertising, packaging and other surplus material from his convenience store, Kim's Corner Food, located in the Rogers Park, which housed and art space The Back Room from 2015-2019. Thomas previously shared work with Roman Susan Art Foundation for The Wide Open (2014); Be Happy (2015-2017); Wild is the Wind (2016); Be Happy (A Proposal) (2016); Blueprints (2016); Property (2017); 2015.07.15 - 2015.07.27 (2017); Be Happy (Street Fair) (2017); and 777 (2018). Kong has exhibited work in Chicago at 062, Circle Contemporary, Night Club, as well as Coco Hunday in Tampa, th Counterpublic Triennial in St. Louis, Delmes & Zander in Köln, TBC Art Inc in Melbourne, Utrecht in Tokyo, and elsewhere. For more information, please visit thomaskong.biz.
This work may be mounted on a wall or positioned as a free-standing sculpture.
Joelle Mercedes and Amina Ross | Work from twinskin | 2016 | FN–2016
Work to be announced from the exhibition twinskin at Roman Susan in Fall 2016. twinskin – a collaborative project by Joelle Mercedes and Amina Ross – has performed across Chicago and the internet, making magic in DIY punk spaces, dance studios, and gay nightclubs.
Joelle Mercedes is an artist and educator who amalgamates text, time-based media and objects to speculate on partial, unstable, and contested histories. Joelle has presented work nationally and internationally at venues including: TrueQué Residencia Artística (Ayampe, Ecuador), Links Hall, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Threewalls, Sullivan Galleries (Chicago), Lynden Sculpture Garden (Milwaukee) and California Institute of the Arts (Valencia, CA). Joelle participated in Strange Attractors, a book project curated by Nomaduma Rosa Masilela for the 10th Berlin Biennale: We Don't Need Another Hero. For more information, please visit soundcloud.com/alejaaleja.
Amina Ross creates boundary-crossing works that embrace embodiment, imaging technologies, intimacy and collectivity in physical and digital spaces. Amina has exhibited work, spoken on panels, and taught workshops at venues throughout the United States and abroad. Amina founded and co-organized ECLIPSING, a multi-media festival celebrating darkness, the participatory performance series Beauty Breaks, and the venue F4F. Amina was a 2018-2019 Artist-in-Residence at Arts & Public Life and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago. Ross is currently an MFA candidate at Yale School of Art within the sculpture department. For more information, please visit aminaross.com.
Details for this work will be announced shortly.
Meg Duguid | Production of Propaganda (If You Don't Need It, Don't Buy It) | Marker, paper, performer | 25’’ x 20’’ | 2017 | FN–2017
This poster was created as a part of Production of an escalating crisis, a solo exhibition by Meg Duguid at Roman Susan in Spring 2017. Production of an escalating crisis was part of an ongoing Tramp Project – Duguid optioned the rights to and is adapting James Agee’s script The Tramp’s New World, originally written for Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp character, into a project that addresses her interest in the congruity of performance and its documentation as an intersection for aesthetic practice. Duguid is an artist and curator with an MFA in sculpture from Bard College. Meg previously shared work with Roman Susan Art Foundation for Production of Audience Reaction (2016). Duguid has exhibited work in Chicago at The Back Room at Kim’s Corner Food, boundary, Chicago Cultural Center, Contemporary Art Workshop, Co-prosperity Sphere, DFBRL8R, Fifty50, Green Lantern, Hairpin Center for the Arts, Kitchen Space, Joymore, Mission, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Out of Site Chicago, Slow, The Suburban, Terrian, and many other locations throughout the United States. Ongoing curatorial projects include Clutch Gallery, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago, and as director of exhibitions for Columbia College. For more information, please visit megduguid.com.
This work requires wall mounting.
Chanel Chiffon Thomas | Video Tapes and Cassettes | Felt and thread | Dimensions and configurations variable | 2018 | FN–2018
These multi-piece sculptures were initial shared as a part of Soft Show, a solo exhibition by Chanel Chiffon Thomas at Roman Susan in Summer 2018. Chanel holds an MFA in painting and print making from Yale University. Thomas has exhibited work in Chicago at Goldfinch, South Side Community Art Center, and Throop Studios, in New York at Lehman College, Osilas Gallery, Patrick Perish Gallery, Theirry Goldberg Gallery, with forthcoming exhibitions at Monique Meloche in Chicago, Jenkins Johnson in New York, and Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles. For more information, please visit chanelcthomas.com.
Work is a multi-piece sculpture which may include a found milk crate and repurposed TV to serve as a pedestal.
Rebecca Beachy and Christine Wallers | bone ash paint | gum arabic, talc, water, grey bone ash, Amish horse leg bones, cow skull (Chesterhill, OH) | Dimensions and configurations variable | 2018-2020 | FN–2019
This wall work originated as collaboration between Rebecca Beachy and Christine Wallers as a part of their 2018-2019 exhibition In no time at Ralph Arnold Annex, organized by Roman Susan.
Rebecca Beachy is an artist, writer, and educator in Chicago whose practice involves deepening attention to the materialities inherent in urban and natural orbits. She holds an MFA in Studio Arts and an MA in Art History from the University of Illinois, Chicago. Beachy has exhibited work in Chicago at 6018North, Iceberg Projects, New Capital Projects, and Sector 2337, as well as FRISE in Hamburg. Beachy’s work has been featured in publications such as Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, UK; Æther Sofia/Haga, Bulgaria, Netherlands; City Creatures, University of Chicago Press, New New Corpse, Green Lantern Press. For more information, please visit rebecca-beachy.com.
Christine Wallers is a cross-disciplinary artist from Chicago, working in installation, paper, photography and sound. Relationships between material, space, time and light are the fundamental elements of her creative process as she uses formal procedures of minimal and post-minimal art to create temporal works often inspired by natural phenomena. Wallers has exhibited work in Chicago at Experimental Sound Studio, High Concept Labs, Links Hall, and TC3. Wallers has lived and exhibited in Seattle, Portland, New Mexico, India, Germany, and France, and was a visiting artist at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. For more information, please visit christinewallers.com.
bone ash paint is applied directly onto a wall or other architectural structure.