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Meet The Artists Picked For Irving Park, Addison Blue Line Station Displays

By Patty Wetli | December 15, 2016 5:46am
 Meet The Artists Picked For Irving Park, Addison Blue Line Station Displays
Art Coming To Blue Line Stations
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IRVING PARK — Renovations aren't quite complete at the Irving Park and Addison Blue Line stations.

As a finishing touch, the Chicago Transit Authority announced Wednesday it had awarded commissions for permanent displays of public art at both stations.

The art campaign is part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's $492 million "Your New Blue" modernization program, which has been ongoing on the Blue Line's O'Hare branch since 2014.

For the Irving Park station, CTA selected Chicago-based Dan Devening, an artist, curator and gallery operator, who is also an adjunct professor in the painting and drawing department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Though his work is frequently described as abstract, Devening has said he prefers to think of himself as a "visual arranger."

Italian-born Francesco Simeti, who now lives in Brooklyn, has been chosen for the Addison station. His work incorporates wallpapers, sculptures and 3-D collage to create "enchanting scenes which on closer inspection point to a darker subtext," according to his bio.

Devening's and Simeti's proposals were selected from nearly 350 submissions after CTA's call for artists in February.

CTA will host public meetings in the coming months — the dates have yet to be announced — for the artists to meet with community members and gather input on their plans for the stations.

"The addition of new artwork at Addison and Irving Park by these two talented artists will transform these station houses into gateways for the surrounding community by reflecting a piece of their story," CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. said in a statement.

The artwork is being funded by money from the Federal Transit Administration. CTA estimated the budget for both projects at $200,000.

Since 2001, CTA's public art collection has nearly doubled to more than 60 works of art — mosaics, sculptures, art glass and more — displayed along the agency's eight rail lines.

For the Irving Park station, CTA selected Chicago-based Dan Devening. [Facebook/Dan Devening/Ann Christine Freuwoerth]

Dan Devening is often described as an abstract artist, but he prefers the term "visual arranger." [Dandevening.com]

Francesco Simeti's work incorporates wallpaper, sculpture and 3-D collage. [Facebook/Francesco Simeti Studio]

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