Featuring works by:
Elena Pach
Kyle Dunn 
Haley kim 
Diane Meyer 
Qichen Xu 
Katie Cowden 
Forrest Hamilton 
Reed Bejnarowicz
Autumn Darah  
Lauren Lichtenstein 

Curated by Muchen Wang
Juried by Lili Xie
Documentation by Lili Xie

Ratio 1 by Kyriakos Apostolidis

Whose Communion by Xinyang Xiao

Exchange by Irmak Sagir

My Friends by Jack Herscowitz

Endymion by Jinlu Luo

Logwood Sutra by Honglan Huang


Poster by Lili Xie
Documentation by Lili Xie

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

HOOK Space is pleased to present Conference of the Winds, a solo exhibition by Chicago based interdisciplinary artist Jiaming You, with exhibition layout by Cristobal Alday, writing done by Francine Almeda.

In You’s newest body of work, Murmuration, the mesmerizing flocking behavior of the European starling becomes both the series’ eponym and a poetic lens through which contemporary systems of migration and collectivity are examined. You, trained as a traditional oil painter working between figuration and abstraction, utilizes a language of custom laser-cut silhouette frames as an extension of her interest in the process of layering as a metaphor for multiplicity. The silhouettes in Murmuration take the shape of starlings themselves and are translated across three materials: mirror acrylic, color-tinted translucent acrylic, and painted wood panels. Arranged to encircle the room as if in eternal flight, the installation requires a constant movement of the viewer to register the transformation of materials from each to the next, flowing with the freedom of the murmuration’s' living counterpart. Upon closer inspection, each bird acts as one piece of a larger story within the personal archive of You’s own migratory fracture, implying a similar defiance to the socio-political boundaries that have shaped their movements. 

Thus, Conference of the Winds acts as a map itself. Each “bird” contains fragments tracing of visual inspiration that trace the line between their origins, their origins and current home: fragments of ancient Tian Wen Tu images intertwine with the archived love letters of 20th century Chicago Southside legendary social workers Bernie Lo and Albert Wong, which are overlaid with the colors from their father’s recent fMRI scans. By visualizing these multitudinous worlds within the starling’s flight, You embraces the plurality of their experience, proposing collective movement as a form of embodied protection within contemporary states of transience.
                                                                                                     - Francine Almeda

Documentation by Mikey Mosher

This exhibition frames tiny treasures and unpolished moments as shared intimate memories, narrated by a dog and her human Muchen.

Between clouds and stars, the narration of the dog stands as a tender reflection of innocence and soft magic in the trivial. It wanders in illusions and lives in sincerely reality, in unguarded hives and warm fragments of life. 

It offers a gentle shelter for grief to anyone who has ever loved and lost, embracing sorrow as a form of love.

Curated by Lili Xie
Poster by Riesling Dong
Documentation by Lili Xie

Noticing the Actual, an experimental half-hour performance about the body and environment in this transitioning climate.

The four performers, Kiki McGrath, Maya Odim, Che Pai, and Terry Sofianos Wohlgenant began developing collaborative work during a residency in rural Wisconsin.

Poster by Che Pai
Documentation by Lili Xie

Curated by Lili Xie and Michael (Linsi) Yang
Posters by Lili Xie

Rather than treating photographs as smooth, weightless images, Images on the HOOK pays attention to their weight, edges, and slightly awkward ways of existing in space. In this exhibition, images are printed, transferred, painted over, layered, and suspended; they cling to silk, sit on panels and cardboard, and slip into zines and long strips of paper. The show looks at what happens when images stop pretending to be transparent “views” and start admitting that they are also objects—with gravity, texture, and hardware—quietly hooked into bodies, architecture, and everyday systems.

The exhibition features work by
Eimar Bello, Zhenye Feng, Shangchen Ju, Hayley Kim, Anisa Vida Lopez, Zhongxuan Niu, Annie Stone, Yuchen Xu, Xiang Zhou, and Rob Croll.

HOOK Space is pleased to present Wandering Malleability  (Nov. 14-Dec. 12, 2025), curated by Cristobal Alday, a solo exhibition of Chicago based painter and installation artist Jiaming You. 

The exhibition features ten paintings on customized wood panels and one photography work from the artist’s newest series “Urban Silhouette”. Through found imagery, layered painting, and a deep sensitivity to form, this body of work examines the relationship between physical surroundings and psychological moments—how individuals perceive themselves and how the environments they inhabit project back onto them. 

Themes of immigration and belonging emerge subtly through layering and transformation, prompting reflection on how external forces shape identity and how, in turn, we imprint ourselves upon the world. By manipulating the shape of customized wood panels, You transforms surface into substance, creating spaces that question the boundaries between self and setting.

Posters by Mikey Mosher
Documentation by Mikey Mosher and Lili Xie

Poster by Xinlyu Wang
Documentation by Lili Xie