Casey Riordan is an American artist based in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

. She works in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, video, and publication.

Early life and education

Casey Riordan obtained a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...

in 1994 from

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

Athens, Ohio Athens is a city in Athens County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 23,849 at the 2020 United States census. Located along the Hocking River within Appalachian Ohio about southeast of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Athe ...

Career and practice

Riordan works in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, video, and publication. She aims in her work to "create a temporary distraction from the weight of oneself”. Riordan's artwork has been displayed in various cities and states such as Cincinnati, Ohio, Buffalo, New York, and Chicago, Illinois. The majority of Riordan's pieces include her original character, Shark Girl.

Shark Girl

Riordan's character, Shark Girl, appears in many of her illustrations, paintings, and sculptures. Shark Girl is a young girl with the head of a shark created in 2004. She was a way for Riordan to "reflect her own anxieties". A fiberglass sculpture of Shark Girl was built for the Ohio River Downtown with a $6,000 grant in 2012. Visitors used the piece as a photo-op, turning it to have the Ohio River in the background. Around Easter 2014, visitors began to deface Shark Girl with graffiti. The city left repairs in Riordan's hands. Soon after, Aaron Ott, the public art curator at the

Albright–Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum located adjacent to Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art and contemporary art. It is directly opposite Buff ...

Buffalo Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...

purchased the sculpture and the museum created a fund to maintain it. The sculpture was moved to Buffalo, where it became a popular local landmark. A 4-minute YouTube video published in 2013 entitled "Come Follow Me" features Shark Girl. The video, created for Riordan's 2012 installation at the

Contemporary Arts Center The Contemporary Arts Center (abbreviated CAC) is a contemporary art museum in Cincinnati, Ohio and one of the first contemporary art institutions in the United States. The CAC is a non-collecting museum that focuses on new developments in pain ...

's UnMuseum in Cincinnati, Ohio, follows Shark Girl on a journey leading her to a horse, which is also featured as a sculpture in the installation. The video features drawings and animation by Riordan, with editing and co-direction by Ossian Mendoza and music by John Aselin. Shark Girl is the title character in Riordan Millard's 2014 children's book ''Shark Girl & Belly Button''.

Exhibitions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Millard, Casey Riordan Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American painters Painters from Cincinnati Sculptors from Ohio Ohio University alumni 20th-century American sculptors 21st-century American painters