Exhibitions
To Washington Park, With Love: Photography from the Summer of 1987
Rose Blouin | April 19th - Summer 2025
“As a documentary photographer, it's really important for me to capture events and the spirit and the humanity of the people, and give someone who wasn't there a sense of what it was and make sure he was listening, and was like, and uh, I accomplished that with these photographs and had an appreciation for what showed up as my love for the community for Black people for our culture.”
— Rose Blouin 2025
During the summer of 1987, photographer Rose Blouin made Washington Park her weekend destination. What began as an intention to highlight the park’s significance for its surrounding community gradually unfolded into a deeper reflection on the ways people inhabit and shape a shared landscape.This series demonstrates Blouin’s ability to move seamlessly between portraiture and landscape, offering a vision where both individual presence and collective belonging are celebrated. Through these images, Washington Park emerges not only as a physical space but as a living testament to the vitality and layered dimensions of Black life—at once personal, communal, and profoundly rooted.The exterior facade of the building is our exhibition space. It is open to the public and the open air, 24/7, all year round. With two to four showings a year, new installations mark seasonal changes. The exhibitions have no barriers to entry. Every person who walks by is the audience and are invited to participate in the communal experiment of Narrow Bridge.
Alexy Irving | February 18 - June 19, 2025
Alexy Irving utilizes her photography to inspire an appreciation for the nature and people that occupy this world. Within her photo documentation practice, she uses natural environments to tell stories about agriculture, new cities and to spark a curiosity for folks to leave their comfort zone.
Alexy is a photojournalist and freelance garden educator who maintains a consistent intersectional thread throughout her work. She is struck by the impact agriculture has on black and brown communities, which may not be immediately apparent. She is interested in both green space access disparities and the presence of underrepresented communities within nature and land stewardship. She is committed to focusing her lens on this rich narrative. Through her work, she hopes to inspire more participation in land cultivation and advocacy.
To Follow: @Wherenextlex
Website: https://alexyirving.myportfolio.com/
Artist Statement:
Nature has a way of easing the nervous system like none other. Surrounding yourself by plant life via gardens, hikes or just collecting houseplants will do your body good. Green spaces in neighborhoods statistically change the mood and outcome of your day.
Images of nature have been shown to do the same for the nervous system as being in nature. As a photojournalist and garden educator, my practice centers these facts. Focusing my lens on nature allows me to assist in, not only the highlighting of local green spaces and gardening practices internationally, but also giving you the peace of mind received when in nature.
My artistic practice expands past photography into local green spaces as a garden educator. As a garden educator, i teach and leads nature walks for youth and adults. During these nature walks and educational workshops, i highlight local herbs with healing benefits and ways to bring gardens closer to you. I bring my camera on these walks to document these experiences in real time and share them with viewers like you.
Currently on view
“Mango Tree in Bloom”
The mango tree is now my favorite tree following my introduction to them in Ghana. The panicle photographed has the potential to grow a mango from each of its flowers. Most only grow 1-3, but seeing the tiny mangos and knowing it could reach full fruit is breathtaking.
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“The Neem Tree”
This tree was abundant in Accra, but that didn't make it less special. Carrying a host of benefits like, being a pesticide for your garden’s relief, a spermicide for birth control, anti-fungal for skin care needs, plus its has immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antihyperglycemic, antiulcer, antimalarial, antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant, antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic properties. This tree is a powerhouse.
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“Processing the Neem Leaves”
It was a pleasure to watch my host shribble up and turn into medicine through the alchemy of the sunshine and air.
I joined in on the processing and conversation on their many benefits. Then I remembered that I was a photographer! This was the first time during that trip that spirit called me to document.
Inaugural Exhibition: Candace Hunter (chlee)
With guest curators, Amber Ginsburg and Betty Kim
June 4 - January 20th, 2023
This first exhibition will bring color and joy to the restoration process. Wrapping around the construction scaffolding, this work will be on view as the font facade comes off and is rebuilt.
Candace Hunter (chlee) is a Chicago based visual artist. Her series, Brown Limbed Girls began during the shelter in place order, yet defied those rules by being shown in New Orleans, Oakland, and on billboards on the Southside of Chicago. Black Men White Shirts began when chlee wondered, who is asking these women to dance? Who is holding their hand? This series is an offering to the beautiful girls - men to walk with them. These three are just the beginning.
Prior to this work she has created installations on Women and Water Rights, on historical injustices and on the works of Octavia Butler. Her most recent Butler-inspired work, The Alien-Nations and Sovereign States of Octavia E Butler will be on view at the Hyde Park Art Center from November 2023 through March 2024.
To follow: @chleeart