CONSTRUCT :
CONSTRUCT / presented by Corners Gallery, an OFFSITE exhibition space / location TBA
All works available for purchase now
Inquiries: ariel@cornersgallery.com
Artist biographies:
Jamie Banes is a Los Angeles-based artist working with found and collected materials. His current body of work is a series of dystopian architectural models and cityscapes emblematic of the current social and political discord of our time. He describes his work as snapshots of our present reality, symbolizing difficult and uncertain times.
Jamie has worked professionally in the areas of art and architecture for over twenty years, including at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley, and the Graduate School of Architecture at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Since relocating to New York State from Northern California, he has served in various roles within the Community Arts Network of Oneonta and as Adjunct Lecturer of Sculpture at Hartwick College.
Banes holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from UC Davis and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico. His artwork has appeared in venues including the de Young Museum, Bedford Gallery, the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Root Division, Slate Contemporary, the Exploratorium, the Cooperstown Art Association Galleries, Schweinfurth Art Center, and at Aqua Art Miami.
Ariel Bullion Ecklund is an artist and curator in upstate NY. Ariel holds a BFA in Art Photography from the School of Visual and Performing Arts and a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies, both from Syracuse University. She is the owner and director of Corners Gallery in Ithaca, NY.
In her work, Ariel employs the mediums of ceramics and photography to explore themes of identity, loss and memory. Her work is in many private collections and she actively exhibits in galleries and museums. For the remainder of 2025 and in 2026, Ariel is scheduled to curate, design and exhibit at various sites in New York, New Jersey and Toronto.
Roberto Bertoia lives and works in Rochester, NY. He has exhibited in national and international juried and invitational exhibitions. He has been commissioned by Winston-Salem State University and the University of Binghamton. He continues to experiment with site, context, material, and craft as it relates to his investigation of isolation, absence/presence at the intersection of sculpture, architecture, and design. Bertoia completed his B.F.A. in sculpture in 1978 at the University of Windsor–Ontario, and his M.F.A. in sculpture at Southern Illinois University in 1982, the year he began teaching at Cornell University.
Thea Gregorius is an artist working primarily in paper reliefs, utilizing repetitive mark-making, paper making craft, drawing and watercolor painting. Channeling thought and gesture through a process of obsessive patterning, Thea meticulously punches thousands of minute holes through the surface of paper with a single pin. As the graphic units that comprise these patterns radiate in all directions, their sources become evident: lunar and solar optical phenomena, classical architectural forms, and profound works of land-art which similarly reference and echo forms found in nature.
Thea has exhibited internationally including a solo exhibition at Larrie in New York, NY. She has been awarded the Manhattan Graphic Center Scholarship and has been an an artist in residence at The League Residency at VYT (Ruth Katzman Scholarship recipient), the Vermont Studio Center (Grant Recipient), PLAYA Fellowship Program, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (Denbo Fellowship), Arts Atrium, the Saltonstall Foundation, Casa Tagumerche, L'appartamento Napoli, Jentel Artist Residency, Masseria Cultura, Nocefresca, The Wassaic Project and Viafarini. She has upcoming residencies at Labo Bosa and the Materia Prima foundation. She holds a BFA from New York University and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
John McLaughlin is an entirely self taught artist living and working in Michigan. He works intuitively and playfully, incorporating detailed drawings, layers of paint and collaged elements on both canvas and paper. John’s work is reminiscent of the paintings of Cy Twombly, sculptures of Alexander Calder, and the drawings of Richard Tuttle.
Jeff Quinn graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1986 with a BFA in Painting and has appeared in numerous solo and group exhibitions. He has been commissioned for many private and public environments, including painting the installation for American artist Robert Gober's retrospective at MoMA. A keen eye toward collaboration, Jeff has worked with a broad array of artists and designers, including David Weeks, David Rockwell and Vladmir Kagan. In 2012 Quinn created a 3000 square foot installation for Ralph Pucci during New York City Design Week and in 2017 painted two gigantic murals for Art Basel Miami Beach. Quinn’s work has been presented at many art fairs including in the Hamptons, Miami, Palm Springs and San Fransisco. Jeff Quinn lives and works in New York.
Rosalyn Richards received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and MFA from Yale University School of Art. Her work is represented in many museum and university gallery collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hood Museum of Dartmouth College, Yale University Art Gallery, Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Ackland Art Museum of the University of North Carolina, the Samek Art Museum of Bucknell University, Guangdong Museum of Contemporary Art in China, Purdue University Galleries, and Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery, among others. She has held artist residencies at numerous locations in the United States including Virginia Center for Creative Arts and Ragdale in Illinois. She was a visiting artist and critic at Colby College, Cornell University, the University of Dallas, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in China, and the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
Rosalyn Richards’s work has been included in numerous national and international exhibitions, including solo exhibitions at Anchor Graphics in Chicago, Artemisia Gallery in Chicago, The Print Center in Philadelphia, Anita Shapolsky Gallery in New York, and Village Gallery in Hauz Khas Village in New Delhi, India. In 2009 her drawings were exhibited at The Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum in Tianjin, China where she was also a guest lecturer. Recently her prints were included in “Multiple Encounters Second Edition”, at The National Academy of Fine Art in New Delhi, India. From 1982 – 2014 Richards taught drawing and printmaking at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Rodger Stevens is an American artist and sculptor whose principal medium is wire. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rodger studied at the Parsons School of Design and the School of Visual Arts in New York City and is now an internationally exhibited artist with work in numerous private and institutional collections. His work, while abstract in nature, is firmly rooted in a deep personal narrative and draws heavily upon literature, language, mathematics, human physiology and day to day experience. His hand-crafted sculptural works and wearable pieces embody carefully wrought stories and ideas that are articulated through composition and form. His attention to line and narrative have lead to a body of works that operates like a language of glyphs: aesthetically rich in appearance, and conceptually rewarding upon closer inspection.
Commissions include: The Whitney Museum of Art, The American Folk Art Museum, PS1, Tiffany & Co., Barneys, Sothebys, Starbucks, Nike, West Elm, The Katonah Museum, The Bristol Museum, David Rockwell, West Elm, Jonathan Adler, The New Yorker, Todd Oldham, The W Hotel, Mumm's Champagne, Yohji Yamamoto, The New York Children's Museum of Art, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Stuart Weitzman, Persol, The Hangaram Museum of Art in Seoul, The American Greetings Company, Steelcase, Lindstrom Rugs, BDDW, The Future Perfect, David Weeks Lighting.
Werner Sun is a visual artist with a background in physics, who lives and works in Ithaca, NY. He uses repetitive manual processes to slowly transform digital images into sculptural objects that evoke the gradual accumulation of knowledge in science. Werner’s work has been featured at Garrison Art Center, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Aon (New York, NY), Manifest Gallery (Cincinnati, OH), and the Islip Art Museum. He has been commissioned to create kinetic sculptures for Cornell University’s Mann Library and the Cornell Botanic Gardens. His essays and images have been published in The Brooklyn Rail, Interalia Magazine, and Stone Canoe. He is the 2019 recipient of the Aon-CUE Artist Empowerment Award from the CUE Art Foundation, and a 2017 recipient of a Strategic Opportunity Stipend from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County, NY. Werner’s work has been described as “stimulating and altogether engrossing,” (Ithaca Times), serving as “a reminder that art can be a reflection of the intricacies of physics, and that both belong to the universe at large” (Hyperallergic).
Ellen Weider is a native New Yorker living in Manhattan. She holds an MFA from Pratt Institute, and a BA from Hunter College. Weider’s work is included in many collections including the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC; Rutgers Print Study Archive, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ; and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Art Collection, NYC. Her catalog “E.W. Squared: Ellen Weider Drypoint Prints” is in the collection of the Widener Library, Harvard University. Recent shows: “Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love,” The Painting Center, NYC; “Rock, Wood, Paper Scissors,” Lockwood Gallery, Kingston, NY; “Ellen Weider: Art About Art,” Equity Gallery, NYC.
Melissa Zarem grew up with artistic roots in two very different cities, New York City and Savannah, Georgia. She earned a BFA from Cornell University and subsequently relocated to Ithaca in 2006. Zarem has been represented by both Corners Gallery (Ithaca, NY) and Exhibit A, (Corning, NY). She became a featured artist at Ithaca College (2013), Aqua Art Miami (2014), and at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Cornell University (2015) where her work was acquired for their permanent collection. Her work has been exhibited at the Abrons Art Center (New York, NY), the Arnot Museum (Elmira, NY), Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center (Auburn, NY), Novado Gallery (Jersey City, NJ), and SUNY Corning Community College (Corning, NY). Zarem has been awarded grants, and fellowships from the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts (2016), the Vermont Studio Center (2023), Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County (2016 and 2023) and the Legacy Foundation (2024). Spring Loaded, a book of her black and white drawings was published by EYE Gallery (2016). Stone Canoe Literary Journal is publishing Zarem’s work in its upcoming 2025 issue. Zarem’s recent projects have been in collaboration with other artists, including a pandemic related project called No Words: a Postcard-Based Conversation Between Two Artists with Elise Nicol. The latter was recently exhibited at Cornell University’s School of Architecture Art and Planning in Close Work, Distanced: Pandemic Collaborations.