Devening Projects is pleased to invite you to the opening of Jin Lee, Train View, and Mark Booth, An Islet, An Inlet, An Isthmus, An Ibex, solo exhibitions by two of Chicago’s most revered artists. Both artists are represented by Devening Projects and have appeared in past solo projects with the gallery. The exhibition opens on October 22nd and will continue until December 7th, 2017.

Train View, Jin Lee’s third solo exhibition at Devening Projects, presents a new body of work made during weekly 2-hour Amtrak commute between Chicago and Bloomington/Normal, IL from 2014 to 2016. The photographs record Midwest landscapes in ever-shifting weather, seasons and light, and the ways in which the land has been developed and inhabited. Made from the rhythm and cycles of rail and work schedule, Train View links disparate moments, subject matter and views to explore multiple levels of time and space, and to engage in critical reflections on our present moment.

Jin Lee is a Chicago-based photographer whose projects center on forming a deeper relationship to places through close examination of landscapes and built environments. She has received the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and the Illinois Arts Council grant, and has had solo shows at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago Cultural Center, and Sioux City Art Center. Her works are included in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Madison Art Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. She received a BA in Political Science from Wellesley College and an MFA in photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is currently a Professor of Art at Illinois State University.

Mark Booth’s second solo exhibition with the gallery presents work that emerges from an interest in sound, orthography, and letters. I.I.I.I is comprised of several distinct bodies of work. The first emerges from the German Language grapheme “eszett” – (a sort of double stacked “s” or peculiar looking “b” indicating a sharp “S” sound), which began an organic investigation of digraphs and trigraphs forming phonetic constructions. The second substitutes geometric structures for letters. The third investigates silent letters and alliteration, while the fourth employs the visual morphology of English letters to make abstract designs. The final body of work utilizes an invented font titled “mirror” to simultaneously obfuscate obscure and transmit personal messages.

The vehicle we use to express our thoughts and that shapes our thinking (language), is messy, malleable, and fascinating. Why use three letters if you could use one?

Booth earned a BFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1987 and an MFA in Painting from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995. He is an Associate Professor in Writing and Sound at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In recent years, his work has been shown and performed in Chicago, Berlin, Copenhagen and Melbourne.

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Tags: Chicago, Devening Projects, East Garfield Park, Jin Lee, Mark Booth