Mark Ballogg
Making Space

Chase Gallery at Epiphany Center for the Arts

November 18, 2022 to January 28, 2023

In November of 2017, Photographer Mark Ballogg had the good fortune to visit the Lincoln Park studio of the sculptor Richard Hunt. Since 1971, Richard has worked on his sculpture and drawings in a former Chicago Transit Authority power substation. The scale and visual complexity of Richard’s studio overflowed with possibilities. That visit was the inspiration to create a suite of images of the spaces artists use to conceive of and make their work.

After fleshing out the idea with several friends, and reviewing several existing photo books on artists’ studios, Ballogg realized the potential to create visually engaging images that uniquely expressed the scope, individuality, and function of artist’s spaces. It was also pointed out that adding artist’s quotes would create a more insightful and nuanced body of work.

Making Space is a five-year project photographing 162 artist studios in Chicago, culminating in a book. Each studio visit consists of two hours of photography followed by an hour of recorded conversation with the artist. Before visiting each studio, Ballogg familiarized himself with each artist and their work through online research. Those insights along with ideas gleaned during the studio photography form the framework for each conversation. He explores the studio as a reflection of artists and their practices. In the process, both the temperament of creative people and the character of the region where they work is revealed. To that end, a wide range of artists, in all aspects of gender, practice, and defining circumstances are included. 

The book, when published in 2023, will consist of 76 quotes gleaned from the conversations and a single photograph from 94 studios. The conversations touch on all things Art, from the individual artists’ relationship with their studio and how that studio models their practice, outward to such questions as what is art, why make art, art’s personal and public impact, and the business of art. The edited text is driven by separate but also shared passions, poetic tone, and often surprising insights. The reader is also introduced to the extraordinary diversity of spaces in which art is made. The result is a book with intermingling narratives illuminating the intersections of thoughts and structures, of stories and circumstances, and ambitions and their material realization.

For more information or to schedule a viewing appointment, please email art@epiphanychi.com.