Devening Projects + Editions

The Near and the Far, Jin Lee‘s second solo exhibition with the gallery, features photographs made over the past six years from two different Chicago sites; a series of Lake Michigan taken from a single location and a set of pictures of wild plants and discarded objects from the west side. A central theme of Lee’s work-a meditation on cycles of change and passage of time through a single-minded exploration of a place-is present in this new body of work. Oscillating between direct perception and memory, Jin Lee studies the ephemeral beauty of materials and conditions that are in a constant state of transformation, and therefore cannot be revealed in a single viewing moment. The photographs also exist as a record of an intimate and sustained exchange between the photographer and a place.

For the past 10 years, Jin Lee has been working on photographic projects that form a deeper relationship to a place through close examination of its landscapes, both man-made and natural.  Her work also seeks to reference and expand upon various traditions of landscape art, from Asian screen paintings to documentary photographs. She has received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and an Illinois Arts Council grant, and has had solo shows at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago Cultural Center, and Sioux City Art Center. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Madison Art Center and Museum of Contemporary Photography. She is Professor of Art at Illinois State University School of Art.

The Near and the Far is supported in part by the Illinois Arts Council.