RJ Messineo (born 1980, Hartford, CT; lives in Greenfield, MA) makes paintings involving observation and abstraction. In the last six years, Messineo has developed an idiosyncratic device for making paintings that involves attaching thin wooden boards to the surfaces of their canvases with magnets. Messineo received an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles (2009) and a BFA from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (2002). They have participated in exhibitions at Pace Gallery, New York; James Cohan Gallery, New York; Thomas Erben Gallery, New York; Ceysson & Bénétière, Koerich, Luxembourg; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; Artist Curated Projects, Los Angeles; Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles; and REDCAT, Los Angeles. Messineo is a Shandaken: Paint School Fellow and completed the Fire Island Artist Residency in 2014. Their work is held in the permanent collection of the Dallas Museum of Art.