Michelle Grabner is an artist, writer, and curator based in Oak Park, Illinois. She is co-director of The Suburban, a nonprofit space that she initiated in 1998 together with the artist Brad Killam, which hosts international artists and projects, including Dave Muller and Joseph Grigely. The Suburban is dedicated to giving the artist complete control over what they choose to produce and exhibit. A regular contributor to Frieze, Tema Celeste, and New Art Examiner, Chicago Tribune, Art in America and many other publications, Grabner is also an associate professor of painting at the University of Wisconsin and a graduate advisor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Grabner also develops independent curatorial projects, including Inheriting Matisse: The Decorative Contour in Contemporary Art in 2002 for the Rocket Gallery in the U.K. Since 1996 Grabner has exhibited her paintings regularly with the Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica; University Galleries, University of Illinois; Ten in One Gallery, New York; and the Rocket Gallery in the U.K.; as well as participating in numerous group shows across the U.S. and in Europe.