Chris Ballantyne’s work focuses on vernacular architecture and observation of the American landscape.  Banal features of suburban and industrial zones are sources for paintings that highlight the quirky and absurd.  Ballantyne states that, “Growing up in a military family and moving to different parts of the country, there was a certain familiarity to the kinds of houses and neighborhoods. They were a series of suburban developments built in separate regions of the country, always on the outskirts of larger cities, at the exit ramps of interstate highways, and all very similar in age and design.  My own notions of space developed out of this cultural landscape which was striving for an indidvidual sense of personal space,  consciously economic, and somewhere between urban and rural.” Dysfunctional structures are flawless in their strangeness, made beautiful through symmetry, simplified lines and flat, subdued colors. Ballantyne eliminates detail to emphasize the subtleties of the way we experience space and our attempts at containment. He extends these concepts further by expanding the imagery of his paintings beyond the picture plane and onto the surrounding walls. “Most of my works involve combinations of various places, drawn from memory. As well, my own interests in skateboarding and surfing altered how I saw  the use of these structures ranging from empty pools, sidewalk curbs, to ocean jetties in a way that tied in to my sense of this larger push and pull between culture and nature.” With shrewd restraint, Ballantyne accentuates the antisocial effects of our built environment with a hint of humor and plenty of ambiguity. A curious emptiness permeates the work of Chris Ballantyne. Graphically rendered buildings, pools, parking lots, and fences take on new meanings and amplified significance, isolated on flat fields of color.

Aubrey Nolan is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York. She is currently writing and drawing her first full-length graphic novel, Listen Along with Izzy McKenna, forthcoming from Rocky Pond / Penguin Teen. Her comics and illustrations have been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Medium, The Nib, HuffPost, The Stranger, and more. Her work appears in Votes for Women, a comics anthology about the fight for women’s suffrage, and in the humor anthology, Send Help! She is also a teaching artist at The Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and has led comics workshops and talks for several universities, as well as AOC’s Homework Helpers program. You can learn more about her in a profile for the The Comics Journal. For book-related inquiries please contact Anjali Singh at Ayesha Pande Literary.

Hi! I'm a freelance illustrator from Lincolnshire. Growing up in the countryside gave me a lot of opportunity to explore, fantasize and most of all draw! When illustrating I think about the story I can tell to make the subject come alive. I love illustrating anything conceptual, (particularly editorial), packaging, greetings cards but overall I love drawing!! 💖🌞😻♌💞

Designer / Art Director / Artist

Helping people and brands talking their feelings through art.