LVL3 is proud to announce Mud Puddling, a two-person exhibition featuring work from Frank Lepkowski (Detroit, MI) and Yae Jee Min (Chicago, IL).

Lepkowski & Min cycle through sentiment, butterflies drawn to carrion, they sift through the ever-shifting milieu of past and present to generate their haptic recollections. Lepkowski’s paintings are dense process works, they layer digital and analog mark-making to produce reverberating displays. In his oversaturated compositions, he merges the mind’s eye and the machinic lens. His hand consistently intervenes, adding the finishing touches, threading in the last-minute pixel.
Min’s practice envelopes viewers in the atmospheric exploration of memory and nostalgia. Through paint, thread, and sequin, she replicates the physical realms of memory. Her shimmering works broaden and spacialize our perception of remembering, forgetting, and imagining. Within their practices, Lepkowski and Min yearn for a residual image; for stories with endings. Nevertheless, the unresolved present weaves its way through their pieces. Both artists emphasize change as the nature of life with a sense of tactility, conveying a complex acceptance of the unknown.

Frank Lepkowski (b.1992) explores the role of modern technology in society, both in his subject matter and his artistic process. He creates custom digital painting software and interactive installations that react to the human body. Working in a digital-analog loop, he fabricates digital paintings through a variety of machine processes including inkjet printing and computerized embroidery. He has mounted solo and two-person exhibitions at Playground Detroit (Detroit, MI) and Skylab Gallery (Columbus, OH). He is a recipient of the 20/20 Emerging Artists Fellowship through Playground Detroit and the Knight Foundation. His work has been featured in Complex Media, Acclaim, and Seen Magazine.
Yae Jee Min (b.1990) is an interdisciplinary artist. She holds a MFA and BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in psychology from Boston University. Using intersected methodologies of painting and craft, she investigates nostalgia through abstraction and materiality. Through whimsy and childish haphazard zones, she creates spaces in which memories, nostalgia and identity both engage and entangle with one another. Whether it is dealing with specific moments of domestic spaces, sleep deprivation, mental illness, and femininity; her work confronts these spaces of familiarity with whimsicality to allow viewers into the moment safely, allowing polemic thoughts to be buffered by notions of blanket warmth. Her work has been exhibited internationally and nationally including Seoul Museum of Arts, Torrance Art Museum, and DfbrL8r Gallery.

October 2 — November 14, 2021
Opening: Saturday, October 2nd, 6-10 pm

Gallery hours are Sundays 1-4 pm and can also be made by appointment.
Email team@lvl3official.com or call/text 312-469-0333 to reserve a time outside of gallery hours.

*Proof of vaccination and masks are required for all visitors during opening events, regular gallery hours, and all private appointments.

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Chicago, Frank Lepkowski, LVL3, Mud Puddling, West Town, Yae Jee Min