Jun. 12-25
2026

Uncontained Figure

Date: June 12–25
Opening: 5–9 PM Friday, June 12

Doors Open: 1–5 PM Saturday & Sunday, or by appointment

Solo Exhibition – Yining Chen
Location:
HOOK Space, Fine Arts Building
410 S Michigan Ave, 6th Floor, Suite 632E, Chicago, IL

Yining Chen’s practice explores the relationship between the body, nature, and time. Moving across painting, material experimentation, and spatial intervention, her work investigates how forms emerge, transform, and dissolve through processes of accumulation and erosion.

Rather than existing within a fixed boundary, her images unfold across multiple surfaces and material conditions. Subject and material become inseparable, functioning as metaphors for temporality, memory, and change. Chen is interested in states of becoming, where the body appears neither fully present nor absent, but suspended between arrival and disappearance.

In Coalescing, the body occupies an unstable condition, simultaneously forming and dissolving. Traces, fragments, and shifting textures evoke the passage of time, allowing the image to remain open, fluid, and unresolved. The work suggests a continuous process of transformation rather than a fixed representation.
Chen works with large-scale paper laid directly on the ground, transforming painting into a spatial and bodily act rather than a purely visual one. Through layers of acrylic, she creates rough, fractured surfaces that oscillate between fragility and resistance. Material becomes both subject and process, recording gestures, duration, and physical engagement. In this way, painting functions as a site where body, landscape, and time converge.

Curated by Lili Xie
Poster by Lili Xie
Documentation by Lili Xie