Jennifer Hines

I am interested in exploring narrative as a key element, both in the formation and the reading, of our identities. Human nature defines our way of understanding things outside of ourselves by creating a narrative to make sense of the disparate elements. Each person’s narrative to a situation is unique because these narratives are created by filtering what we encounter through our own prior experiences and identities. By using my own personal experiences as a springboard to start a discussion, I create an arena for voyeurism and reflection from the viewer that in turn prompts questions, comparisons, and sheds light on the human experience.

We reveal our identity and form personal narratives by how we balance the external forces that we encounter on a day to day basis. Balance can mean physical balance, such as how we keep our bodies upright on the ground, but can also mean mental balance and how we manage and adjust to living in our environment. This balance is formed by how we sort, filter, and stack these external forces, such as our life responsibilities, emotions, observations, tasks, and confrontations into manageable packages to keep ourselves sane and well- adjusted within the expectations of society. When we are confronted with an experience, we have to take it in and process it, which means finding a place for that experience inside our minds and body, or else we have to consider it and reject it as not imperative to our survival. Processing these stimuli is a coping mechanism, and an instinct that our bodies use to balance our anxiety, stress, and obligations. This exchange takes places in a split second, often without thought, as we are confronted with endless stimuli every day, including all the things we see, touch, observe, feel, and interact with. If all of these exchanges took physical form as a brick or block, the visual manifestation of our personal balance would be architectural and overwhelming, but our mind processes each block and keeps our lives balanced and allows us to live in the world. How we stack these experiences inside or outside our bodies and the patterns that are created as we sort and filter them into manageable configurations becomes a symbolic representation of our daily struggle to maintain normalcy in a social environment. How we choose to balance these encounters is unique to each person, and in turn reveals aspects of our identities that can be shared and examined in order to learn more about humanity and personal interactions.

Windows, solo photography show, Cafe Mediterra, Chicago IL

2007: Within, Lexington Art League, Lexington KY

Narrative: Body De/Constructed, TOJO Gallery, Chicago IL

2006: Memories, Print Zero Studios, Seattle WA

Narrative and Negative, Roy G. Biv Gallery, Columbus OH

inside/out, Clayton Staples Gallery, Wichita State University, Wichita KS

2005: Dimensions Variable, Truman State University, Kirksville MO

Movement: Impressions of Upper Arlington, public art project, Upper Arlington OH

Halted Moments, Sculpture Galena at the Chicago Athenaeum, Galena IL

2004: Embodiment, Concourse Gallery, Upper Arlington OH

Ritual Home: Memory (artifice & evidence), Zoller Gallery, Penn State Univ, University Park PA

2003: Positions, Window Dressing Project, Cosmopolitan Engineering Group, Tacoma WA

Self-conscious (Personal Closet), McLanahan Gallery, Community Arts Center, Altoona PA

Institutional Influences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska City NE

2002: impressions: chronological moments, Arts Bldg Lobby, Penn State Univ, University Park PA

topography (self-portrait), Gallery 1, Penn State University, University Park PA

Beneath the Skin, Commencement Art Gallery window spaces, Tacoma WA

Juried and Group Exhibitions 

2012: WORD 6: An Architecture of Multimodal Poetry & Text, The Arcade, Chicago IL

Morsels, Squared! Art + Community at Township, Chicago IL

Small Works Show, Riverside Art Center, Riverside IL

The Personal is Political, Koehnline Museum of Art, Oakton Community College, Des Plaines IL

Drawn & Quarto, Abecedarian Gallery, Denver CO

Building Blocks, Transit Residency at I Am Logan Square Gallery, Chicago IL

Paused (Stop, Look, Listen), Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, Chicago IL

Strange Glue, Thompson Gallery, The Cambridge School of Weston, Weston MA

Genius Loci: Learning from Nature’s Muse, Brushwood at Ryerson Woods, Deerfield IL

Ground Teeth, Offwhite, Chicago IL

Artist and Self, North Center Arts Festival, prak-sis, Chicago IL

I am Beautiful, Flourish Studios, Chicago IL

Chicago Fringe Artists Networking Night, Chicago IL

Animal Facts, Fairy Tales, and Fictions, Gloria Singletary Gallery, Lexington KY

The Natural World, swell gallery, West Dundee IL

Collage, Kinzie Avenue Arts Corridor, Arts of Life, Chicago IL

2011: Curator’s Showcase, Logan Square Arts Center, Chicago IL

Hand Lettered, Abecedarian Gallery, Denver CO

Uncommon Threads, 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland OR

Autobiography, New Wave Coffee, Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, Chicago IL

Art of the Book, Front Porch Gallery, Carlsbad CA

Art Bazaar, Black Cloud Gallery, Pilsen Chicago

2010: Hello my name is… art installations, Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, Chicago IL

PRINT, Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, Chicago IL

Category: Printmaking, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago IL

At Close Distance: Labyrinth of Self, C33 Gallery, Columbia College, Chicago IL

2009: Meat!, Spudnik Press, Chicago IL

Buy Land, Art In My Backyard, Chicago IL

No Borders/No Walls, in conjunction with the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, Chicago IL

Word 4: Type + Image, Hokin Gallery, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago IL

2008: Science & Art, University of Chicago, Gordon Center for Integrative Sciences, Chicago IL

Subtext, Parts and Labor Collective Bloom, Gallery 51, Massachussetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams MA

Rites of Passage: The Mortality of Time, The Nave Gallery, Somerville MA

Transparent, (SCENE) Metrospace, East Lansing MI

PhotoWorks, Abecedarian, Denver CO

2007: Chicago Artist Group Show, Lasso Gallery at the Butcher Shop, Chicago IL

One of One: Prints Like No Other, Spudnik Press, Chicago IL

Other People’s Baggage, part of Pathogeographies, Gallery 400, Univ. of IL at Chicago

Beyond Printmaking, Texas Tech School of Art, Lubbock TX

2006: CORPUS: Interpretations of the Human Figure, 33 Collective Gallery, Chicago IL

Do It Too!, YorkArts Gallery, York PA

2005: Cover to Cover 2005, Maryland Federation of Art, Baltimore MD

New Editions Books>Old>New>Digital 2005, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley CA

Secret Place, Sacred Space, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago IL

Simulacra, Arts + Literature Laboratory, New Haven CT

2004: Vital Signs, Zoller Gallery, Penn State University, University Park, PA (with Mark Dion)

Visual Text, Fulton Street Art Gallery, Troy NY

Paperwork: In, On and Of Paper, Foundry Art Center, St. Charles MO

The Human Figure, Olin Fine Arts Center, Washington & Jefferson College, Washington PA

2003: Menagerie, Zoller Gallery, Penn State University, University Park PA

Verses, Volumes & Vision: Art and the Written Word, Northbrook Public Library, Illinois

2001: Works on Paper, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle WA

Selected Publications

The Human Condition, Sprocketbox Entertainment, Chicago IL, 2012 1000 Artist’s Books, Rockport Publishers/Quarry Books, 2012 back room projects: an apartment gallery, thesis paper, Columbia College of the Arts, December 2010 500 Handmade Books, Lark Publishing, Asheville NC, 2008 50/50, a catalog of printmakers, PrintZero Studios, Seattle WA, 2009

Collections

University of Michigan Library Flourish Studios, Chicago IL CAMAC, Marnay-sur-Seine, France

Artist in Residency Awards

CAMAC, Marnay-sur-Seine, France; November 2011

Small Works