Roman Susan has continued supporting art despite the loss of their storefront gallery.
Roman Susan has continued supporting art despite the loss of their storefront gallery.
Despite having lost their storefront gallery space at 1224 W. Loyola Ave., the owners of Roman Susan Art Gallery have remained committed to collaborative art and have continued their work with new projects and collaborations.
Now an artist-led group known as The Roman Susan Art Foundation, they’re based at the Mutual Insurance Building at 7450 N. Sheridan Rd.. Their previous gallery space at 1224 W. Loyola Ave. closed in September, The Phoenix previously reported.
Roman Susan Art Gallery was founded in 2012 by artist Kristin Abhalter Smith, naming it in honor of her grandparents, Roman and Susan, after seeing the space at 1224 W. Loyola Ave. for rent down the street from her studio. Her husband, Nathan, said he joined a little bit later to help out.
“A lot of what happened in the storefront was amazing and at a scale that was really manageable,” co-founder and managing director Nathan Abhalter Smith said. “We learned a ton from the people who were doing stuff there, and then we could apply it to the stuff we took outside and did with other people.”
Abhalter Smith, who lives nearby, said he’ll still walk by the old gallery on instinct, “almost like a Pavlovian dog thing.”
Abhalter Smith said by the time they moved out, he felt prepared for the space to go away. Still, he said, he misses the unique architecture of the space and the way it enabled artistic expression.
“I think it managed to be idiosyncratic and unique, because it was almost like an architectural accident,” the co-founder said. “It was very small, and it was really angled, but you could see all of it from the sidewalk. Artists could really use it in a particular way to respond to those conditions that most of the people that would see things there were just walking by on the street and not necessarily intending to see them.”
Abhalter Smith said Roman Susan is in talks with many people about possibly opening up new spaces.
“We’ve been looking for a long time, and so we have a good sense of what’s around and it hasn’t quite fit yet,” Abhalter Smith said. “We’re definitely interested in it, but it wouldn’t be the same thing. We would like to respond to whatever the resources and conditions of the place are. But I think it would be really exciting because it’s a significant resource, and we were very privileged to be able to do it, and we would like other people to have that experience.”
Their office at 7420 N. Sheridan Rd. is located inside the historic landmark building built in 1921, according to the Landmark Designation Report. It’s owned by the Institute of Cultural Affairs who rent to other nonprofits.
Their office is currently hosting the “Evergreen” project, a multiartist collection featuring 15 silent videos.
“I think it’s interesting when things like video become super accessible for everyone because it’s still really difficult to make them well, and the old ways they were made aren’t necessarily the accessible ways,” Abhalter Smith said. “It makes it better because people know what they’re looking at and can understand how difficult it is to make, too.”
The exhibition’s title is apt considering the persistence of Roman Susan’s mission despite space restraints and the historic building they’re in which advocates for sustainability and preservation. Continuing forward, Abhalter Smith said the group plans to keep the exhibition up as long as they’re in their current space.
The Uptown location also hosts a small selection of art books and zines to look through, additionally acting as a workspace for meetings, gatherings and collaborative events, according to Abhalter Smith.
Roman Susan is working on programming in many places, cooperating with multiple groups. Some of their upcoming events include “Navigations: One’s Position (and a route)” at Experimental Sound Studio in Edgewater. Other current projects can be found on their website.
“I think part of the reason we’re scattered amongst these places now is that we’ve met so many people doing all kinds of amazing things,” Abhalter Smith said. “We’re privileged to know them and to have their encouragement to be like, ‘Yeah, come here and do what you were doing over here, or bring other people together, and we’ll overlap in the different circles we have and expand what we’re both doing.”
Abhalter Smith said his wife, co-founder Kristin Abhalter Smith is currently at an artist residency in Kyoto, Japan — her first in a decade. One upside of the storefront closing, Abhalter Smith said, is having the freedom to “get back to the basics” and attend things like residencies.
No matter where Roman Susan ends up, Abhalter Smith said the group continues to value making their neighborhoods interesting and engaging through art.
“I think it’s important to different people for different reasons, but I suppose whenever I was trying to be creative and people encouraged me, it made a difference,” Abhalter Smith said. “I felt like I was enabled to have possession of something that was mine that was outside of other realms, of commerce or other things, like I could really inhabit a world that I had ownership in.”
Abhalter Smith said appointments should be booked in advance to see any of the videos at the Uptown location.
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