Casey Riordan Millard


Casey Riordan is an American artist based in Cincinnati. 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 in fine art in 1994 from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

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 in Buffalo 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'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

Solo Exhibitions
ArtWorks, Kennedy Heights Arts Center Annex, Cincinnati, Ohio2016
Albright- Knox Art Gallery, Canalside, Buffalo, New York2015
Thomas More College, Crestview Hills, Kentucky2014
Angela Meleca Gallery, Columbus, Ohio2013
Findlay Street Project Space, Cincinnati, Ohio2013
Cincinnati Recreation Commission, Yeatman's Cove, Cincinnati, Ohio2013
UnMuseum, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio2012
PAC Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio2011
Packer-Schopf Gallery, Chicago, Illinois2011
Herron School of Art and Design, IUPUI, Indianapolis, Indiana2011
Weston Art Gallery, Aronoff Center for the Arts, Cincinnati, Ohio2009
Packer-Schopf Gallery, Chicago, Illinois2008
The Carnegie, Covington, Kentucky2008
Aron Packer Gallery, Chicago, Illinois2006