Emma Katz was born and raised in Bay Shore, New York and is a graduate of Harvard University. In 2009, she founded Recession Art with her sister Ani Katz, and currently serves as the Executive Director of Recession Art. Before founding Recession Art, she worked primarily in the theater where she was most recently an an Associate Producer at the Summer Play Festival and the Festival Coordinator and Development Director of Horse Trade’s FRIGID NY Festival. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for FRIGID NY and the Evelyn Holman Foundation, which provides micro-grants to students in the Bay Shore school district.

Ani Katz: Art Director

Ani Katz is an 08 graduate of the Yale undergraduate photography department, and current first-year MFA student at Columbia College in Chicago.  She has also toured as a rock band photographer and taught 1st and 3rd grade in Brooklyn Heights.

Melanie Kress: Curator of Printed Material

Melanie Kress is an independent curator, writer, and artist. She is the Co-Founder and Curatorial Director of CONCRETE UTOPIA, a project space in Crown Heights that presents exhibitions and performance, publishes books, and operates a print shop. Currently, Melanie works in Development, Communications, and Publications at the American Federation of Arts.

Risa Shoup: RAC Programming Director

Risa Shoup became part of Recession Art as Guest Curator for What is the Where? in fall 2010. Risa spent four years as the Programming Director of chashama before she decided to work independently. Currently, she is the residency manager for the BRIC House Fireworks Residency, a state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary artists’ residency set to open in 2013. In 2010 and 2011 Shoup curated two small group shows of multi-media, sculpture and new media work at the Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn, NY. In July 2011, she opened “Ode Hotel,” an exhibition of sculptural and installation-based works in the Old Hotel section of The Wassaic Project’s Maxon Mills exhibition space.  In January, she will open The Bricoleurs, an exhibition of  the work of artists who explore the medium of collage and assemblage, and examine expanding the canon of these processes, co-curated with Christian Fuller at the BRIC Rotunda Gallery. In March 2012, she will curate a site-specific installation by sculptor R. Justin Stewart at the Invisible Dog.

Ivy Challis: Blogger

Ivy Challis is a Manhattan native, raised in South Florida, and currently lives in Brooklyn. Before moving to New York City, she attended Wheaton College in Massachusetts where she studied Fine Art. Her passion for art and culture lead her back to New York where she continued her art education, taking classes at the New School and the School of the Visual Arts. During this time, she began working at Arthouse Films, a company that distributes films about art and artists. Currently, Ivy is focused on blogging for the RA website, bringing innovative and up to date content about the gallery and the art world to the RAC blog.

Recession Art Staff

To learn more about working with us, please contact info@recessionartshows.com.

C.J. Gineros: Technology Director

C.J. Gineros graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s computer engineering program in 2005, and has since been roped into countless artsy projects that require his genius tech skills.  When not helping emerging artists, he can be found in the offices of a forensic accounting firm that specializes in [anti] money-laundering and fraud.  In addition, C.J. is an aspiring inventor and entrepreneur.  You can download his latest work, Plumb, at Palatial Software‘s website.

Paul Bradley Gibbs: Volunteer Coordinator

Paul Bradley Gibbs is originally from Long Island, NY. He studied Biology at UC Berkeley and later traveled to South Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He is currently pursuing a career in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), while continuing to master his volleyball skills.

Allison Meier: Communications Consultant

Allison Meier is a writer for nonprofits and print publications and also of short stories, poetry, and novels that tend toward magical realism. After graduating from the journalism college at the University of Oklahoma, she worked for a year at a nonprofit contemporary arts organization in Oklahoma City. She then moved to Europe and taught English in primary schools in Valence, a town in the south of France. She chronicles her adventures at Allez, Allie!.

Jane Van Cleef: Design Consultant

Jane Van Cleef is a fashion designer, toy designer and captain of industry. Her current passion is creation “Organice Handmade Woodland Friends” at her store Hazel Village.  Past artworks of note include her series of Robot Needlepoints included in the Recession Art Inaugural, and her senior thesis show at Harvard, Climate Change Preparedness Center : a fully functioning clothing store which outfitted customers for a more aquatic future.