August 2024
Ali Rossi and Ruoyi Jiang
Ali Rossi and Ruoyi Jiang, New York, 2024. Image courtesy of Chop Suey Club and Olympia
As the novelist Truman Capote was fond of saying, sometimes the best conversations are the ones overheard. Recently, we eavesdropped on a tête-à-tête between Ali Rossi, the founder and director of New York’s Olympia, and Ruoyi Jiang, founder of Chop Suey Club, the Lower East Side’s go-to boutique for unique art and design objects from the Chinese diaspora. On the occasion of Olympia’s expansion to a second ground-floor location in the heart of San Francisco, the two savvy entrepreneurs sat down to discuss their long-term, mutually inspirational friendship, their ongoing collaboration, and their vision for what is sure to become one of the West Coast’s most talked-about creative hubs.
“Olympia is dedicated to dismantling the cis male-centric art canon. This means we work with women, gender nonconforming, trans, and non-cis male artists.”
—Ali Rossi, Olympia
Ali Rossi: What’s your version of how we met?
Ruoyi Jiang: We met through a friend of a friend in 2016?
AR: At a club in Soho. Why was I at a club?
RJ: I honestly don’t know. And you were operating under the name of Olympia but you hadn’t opened the gallery. You were doing one-off, nomadic exhibitions?
AR: Yeah, it was messy and formative.
RJ: I had just started my store, Chop Suey Club, not too long before. Then we collaborated on Simone Leitner’s show in the basement of my store.
AR: Well, the funny thing is, originally, wasn’t there a gallery upstairs at Chop Suey Club, and you were operating in the basement?
RJ: Oh yeah, that’s true. I started in the basement and then eventually took over the whole space.
AR: So that’s a funny ongoing framework for us - basement vs. upstairs - but actually seeing them as equals. Who is on bottom, who is on top?
RJ: Yeah, that is very true. So, a few years later, in October 2020, we took over the lease next door, which is also a two-story space, and I offered you the top to officially start the gallery. That’s how our cooperative business relationship began.
AR: The REAL professional relationship, yes. Okay, so now, what are our backgrounds? I can go first. I grew up in New York City, and soccer was pretty important throughout my upbringing. I think being on a team and athleticism has informed my gallerist practice. For one, there are a lot of intense muscly days (i.e., climbing into the window to hang something, duck-taping cans of paint together to knick a cobweb from the corner of the ceiling). But also, athletes are very obsessive about their ‘art form’ - that mentality of being dedicated to something 24-7, no matter the ‘result’ comes from my formative years. Also, trusting one’s intuition.
Installation view, Cassandra Mayela Allen, Desahogando: Undrowning, Olympia, 2024. Image courtesy of Olympia
Installation view, Melissa Meyer, Olympia, 2024. Image courtesy of Olympia
RJ: What was your major in University?
AR: I initially felt lost in college because I was transitioning out of playing competitive soccer. The team I was on lost nearly every game, and I was getting injured left, right, and center—something needed to shift.
So, to answer your question, I studied art history and painting, but it wasn’t something I knew I wanted to pursue right off the bat. I accidentally forgot to disenroll from a painting course, and at the end of the semester, I had to talk to my soon-to-be professor, Matt Phillips, to get an official stamp, saying that I had never stepped foot in his class. At the time, I was already taking art history courses, and I realized from the five minutes I was in Matt’s studio getting that ‘stamp’ that I actually needed to be there. I felt this pull - to extend the dimly lit, PowerPoint-esque, hyper-intellectual, yet far removed, art history courses into something quite physical, independent, quirky, and community-oriented. So, I ended up enrolling in Matt’s Painting I course the following semester. Long story short, I am much better with my hands.
As my interest in painting was shaping up, I started curating shows with friends, Anna Berlin being one of them - she is now an artist on our roster.
You also feel like a big part of my professional upbringing. You were always this slightly older, wiser person encouraging me to take my form more seriously, and I remember you calling me one day during the pandemic, and you were like, there’s this space opening up; stop spending all your money doing these one-off shows, take yourself seriously - do this. And I thought you were crazy, but then I realized a day or two later that you were the right kind of crazy, and it needed to happen. So, I will always be grateful to you for pushing me over the edge.
RJ: It’s working out great, otherwise I would be feeling bad right now.
AR: Maybe you’re a good liar.
RJ: We’re doing something right.
Installation view, Dana Frankfort, Life and Death, Olympia, 2024. Image courtesy of Olympia
Installation view, Colleen Herman, A longed-for bed, Olympia, 2023. Image courtesy of Olympia
Installation view, Mie Yim, Psychotropic Dance, Olympia, 2021. Image courtesy of Olympia
“The bookstore segment will largely converse with Olympia’s programming, and then the gift shop will largely carry our products within the context of San Francisco.”
—Ruoyi Jiang, Chop Suey Club
AR: So what’s your story?
RJ: I have a background in the arts. I went to NYU for photography and imaging. I worked in publishing, architecture, all sorts of fields before, but my interest has always been in art and design.
AR: Hey, you know, a story I always like to bring up is when you wrote to all of our friends and said, no more dumplings in the store because they take over the smell of a space. You taught me a lot of things about maintaining a space before we even cohabited one. Because now, when my friends come and visit me at the gallery with dumplings or whatever they are eating, I tell them the same thing. Eat outside!
RJ: That’s called management.
AR: Spatial and smell awareness.
RJ: Why did you start Olympia?
AR: I started Olympia at Mount Holyoke as a way for my friends and me to show our work in new contexts outside the classroom. It felt important, especially when all of us were gearing up to graduate, to embark on more practical experiences because you don’t have the luxury of being in a classroom setting and having existential thoughts and conceptions from some remote place. The fiscal responsibilities set in, and so did the identity crisis.
Over the last 8 years, it slowly got traction and became a brick-and-mortar entity, but Olympia still has the cooperative roots of being an artist-first, transparent, collaborative environment. Olympia is dedicated to dismantling the cis male-centric art canon. This means we primarily work with women, gender nonconforming, trans, and non-cis male artists. Our foundation is a direct response to having studied at Mount Holyoke, which was the first all-women’s college in the United States. The college has also adapted to keep up with the times, and in my last year, they opened admissions to non-cis-male prospective students.
With San Francisco, it feels right to be expanding into a city that has a tight-knit community of gallery programs that veer away from the hyper-competitive nature of New York. We will produce programming that leans into mediums and displays we have yet to experiment with. There’s also more space to play. Olympia on Orchard Street will always be important because having this intimate framework makes it so an artist has to be concise conceptually.
RJ: Yeah, the shows have been really tight. And they’re getting tighter! Why is it called Olympia?
AR: I named the gallery after the Manet painting. The one of the reclining nude.
RJ: Oh, I know which one you’re talking about!
AR: I hate titles—anything fixed, really. I find it daunting. I also think Olympia sounds nice, and I like the different touchstones of what Olympia means. On the West Coast, there’s Olympia, Washington, which is where Riot Girl music started. Mount Olympus is the tallest mountain in Greece. The Olympics—the athletic component never goes away.
Mahjong room at Chop Suey Club. Image courtesy of Chop Suey Club
AR: Where did Chop Suey Club come from?
RJ: Chop Suey Club comes from a couple places. One is that Chop Suey is one of the first Chinese-American dishes ever invented. It largely follows the thread of Chinese food, the essence of Chinese food, which is kind of like stir fry based. But the ingredients and flavor catered more to a non-Asian palate. I thought that was kind of an interesting thing since my topic is more about the Chinese diaspora culture. And then to call it Chop Suey Club is reminiscent of Joy Luck Club, which is like a really quintessential Asian-American literature. And it involves women who immigrated from China to the U.S. - they’ll play mahjong together every once in a while and gossip and support each other throughout the years of raising children.
AR: Which is what we do. Minus the children—It’s what we will do.
RJ: I thought the name was also kind of funny. So it’s not something that’s taken too seriously.
AR: It makes sense for us to be venturing on a West Coast expansion together. From an outsider’s perspective on your business, I think there is a huge demand and longing for something like Chop Suey Club out on the West Coast. It seems like there aren’t a lot of contemporary Chinese diaspora outlets, whether that be via retail offerings or events.
RJ: Yeah it’s true. I was just talking with someone from San Francisco, and she was basically saying there’s no hub or anything like us there.
AR: So, in essence, what we’re doing in San Francisco is extending our cohabitation framework, but it’s ground level, on just one floor, so our entities will be in direct dialogue. You and Chop Suey Club will establish a shop, and I’ll have the gallery.
RJ: Yeah, I see it as a bookstore, gift shop kind of hybrid form. The bookstore segment will largely converse with Olympia’s programming, and then the gift shop will largely carry our products within the context of San Francisco.
Chop Suey Club. Image courtesy of Chop Suey Club
Chop Suey Club. Image courtesy of Chop Suey Club
Chop Suey Club. Image courtesy of Chop Suey Club
AR: Where did Chop Suey Club come from?
RJ: Chop Suey Club from a couple places. One is that Chop Suey is one of the first Chinese-American dishes ever invented. It largely follows the thread of Chinese food, the essence of Chinese food, which is kind of like stir fry based. But the ingredients and flavor catered more to a non-Asian palate. I thought that was kind of an interesting thing since my topic is more about the Chinese diaspora culture. And then to call it Chop Suey Club is reminiscent of Joy Luck Club, which is like a really quintessential Asian-American literature. And it involves women who immigrated from China to the U.S. - they’ll play mahjong together every once in a while and gossip and support each other throughout the years of raising children.
AR: Which is what we do. Minus the children - It’s what we will do.
RJ: I thought the name was also kind of funny. So it’s not something that’s taken too seriously.
AR: It makes sense for us to be venturing on a West Coast expansion together. From an outsider’s perspective on your business, I think there is a huge demand and longing for something like Chop Suey Club out on the West Coast. It seems like there aren’t a lot of contemporary Chinese diaspora outlets, whether that be via retail offerings or events.
RJ: Yeah it’s true. I was just talking with someone from San Francisco, and she was basically saying there’s no hub or anything like us there.
AR: So, in essence, what we’re doing in San Francisco is extending our cohabitation framework, but it’s ground level, on just one floor, so our entities will be in direct dialogue. You and Chop Suey Club will establish a shop, and I’ll have the gallery.
RJ: Yeah, I see it as a bookstore, gift shop kind of hybrid form. The bookstore segment will largely converse with Olympia’s programming, and then the gift shop will largely carry our products within the context of San Francisco.
AR: That’s remarkable.
Linda Carmella Sibio, Monkey Stew, 2013, gouache on arches watercolor paper, 48 x 45 inches. Image courtesy of Olympia
Linda Carmella Sibio, Double Trigger, 2018, gouache on watercolor paper on dibond, 20 x 13 inches. Image courtesy of Olympia
RJ: What are your plans for the first show in SF?
AR: Our first show will be a solo exhibition by Linda Carmella Sibio, a schizophrenic interdisciplinary artist living in a homestead-type cabin in Joshua Tree, CA. She paints, draws, and builds unusual objects as part of her process. Her work delves into the psychological impact of capitalism and how this directly affects society’s most vulnerable populations. San Francisco feels like a particularly important context to have that dialogue because of the rampant need to address the homeless and mental health crisis, especially post-pandemic. A lot of our programming in the first year will touch on the origins of Olympia on Orchard Street and my own becoming a gallerist.
RJ: Lovely. Yeah, a lot of things have changed for San Francisco after the pandemic. Downtown used to be a central hub for tech and retail, but apparently, everyone has left. But I honestly feel like if there are hubs that keep on popping up like ours, we can really turn into a community kind of space, and then it might actually bring people back.
AR: We need to find new modes of asking and responding, not necessarily answering.
RJ: I’m sure there will be things we can do there that we might not be able to do here, and vice versa.
Olympia’s new San Francisco gallery opens September 27, 2024 with a solo exhibition by performance artist and painter Linda Sibio.
Olympia began as a nomadic curatorial program at the historic women’s college, Mount Holyoke, in 2015. In 2020, Olympia established a permanent space at 41 Orchard Street in New York City. The gallery serves as a hub of experimentation and is committed to fostering community and rejecting binaries. Olympia has been a member of the New Art Dealers Alliance since 2021.
Chop Suey Club is an Asian lifestyle boutique that focuses on Chinese diaspora design and culture. The retail store features seasonal rotations of art and décor, home goods, clothing, jewelry, collectibles, gifts, and more. Through unique product offerings and immersive events, Chop Suey Club aims to provide deeper bonds for people through the celebration of Asian culture, fulfill those who are seeking unique cultural expressions as global citizens.