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Previous Exhibitions - m97 GalleryLUO DAN 骆丹SIMPLE SONG 素歌 Exhibition: 29 Oct, 2011 - 8 Jan, 2012 Opening Hours: Tues-Sat 10am - 6pm Sunday 12pm - 6pm / Closed Monday For his “Simple Song” project, Luo Dan employed the traditional collodion wet plate photographic process invented in 1850, spending several months traveling with a portable darkroom in remote and mountainous regions of China’s southern Yunnan Province. Looking to capture the purity of this photographic process, Luo Dan was able to reflect the authenticity found in rural life for many of China’s yet undeveloped regions, where the way of life has remained largely intact for hundreds of years. Many of the villages in this region were settled by Christian missionaries 100 years ago, where the local villagers are people of faith and devout churchgoers dressing up in their ethnic garments, or Sunday’s best. By bringing a reverence to both this photographic process and subject matter, Luo Dan’s “Simple Song” series is an effort to capture a sense of timelessness. An incredibly popular process in the mid-nineteenth century, wet plate collodion could render exquisite detail for photographers, but the laborious process of exposure and development also led to its decline towards the end of the century. An acclaimed portrait and documentary photographer, Luo Dan has won numerous awards and recognition for his works “On the Road - Highway 318” (2006) and “North – South” (2008). Luo Dan was born in Chongqing, China, in 1968 and graduated from the Sichuan Fine Art Academy in 1992. He was given the Gold Award for Outstanding Artist at the Lianzhou International Photography Festival in 2008 for his body of work “North, South” (2008). This year he was recently awarded the Hou Dengke documentary photography prize, as well as voted best new photographer at the Dali International Photography Festival (2011). He currently lives and works in Chengdu, China. _______________________________________________________________________________________ YANG YONG SOLO EXHIBITION "ON EDGE" 杨勇个展《神经质》 Exhibition Dates: 6 Sept - 16 Oct, 2011 Opening Hours: Tues-Sat 10am - 6pm Sunday 12pm - 6pm / Closed Monday _______________________________________________________________________________________ CHI PENG "MOOD AND MEMORY" 迟鹏 个展《记忆与心情》 Exhibition Dates: 2 July - 28 August, 2011 Opening Hours: Tues-Sat 10am - 6pm Sunday 12pm - 6pm / Closed Monday The “Mood and Memory” exhibition presents the latest body of work by internationally renowned artist Chi Peng (b. 1981) titled “Mood Is Never Better Than Memory”, as well as a selection of his most recognized works from the last several years, including “Catcher” and “19.June.1981”. In a suite of five large-format panoramic photographs, “Mood Is Never Better Than Memory” presents a surrealistic seascape of the artist’s hometown, Yantai, Shandong Province, China. Sky, water and seabirds as well as Chi Peng’s alter-ego character give the viewer clues to the artist’s intended narrative: illusive love, fleeting emotion, happiness in memory, solitude, finding one’s inner peace. Through masterfully composed scenes, Chi Peng explores once more themes of identity, isolation and freedom and a desire to evoke with images a certain fleeting mood faded by the passing of time. In the two “Catcher” panoramas based on J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”, Chi places in one a host of children in a wheat field marching toward their future and, tellingly, scarecrows in the other. _______________________________________________________________________________________ WANG NINGDE "SOME DAYS" 王宁德 个展《某一天》1999-2009年 Exhibition Dates: 14 May - 26 June, 2011 Opening Hours: Tues-Sat 10am - 6pm Sunday 12pm - 6pm / Closed Monday Wang Ningde’s "Some Days" series is some of the most iconic work to come out of the Chinese contemporary photography scene in the last decade. Resembling film stills of a sedate noir fantasy whereby childhood memory, fear, and reverie are folded into the serene trappings of an anonymous historical past, these works have the effect of a reoccurring daydream. Starting out as a news photographer in Guangdong, Wang captured the tragedy and drama of everyday life. In this extreme departure from the stark realism of the everyday news beat, the artist presents a fictitious narrative of his own subconscious someday. Wang’s “Some Days” series has been exhibited at and collected by numerous important institutions worldwide. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ROBERT VAN DER HILST "CHINESE INTERIORS" Solo photography Exhibition: 12 March - 8 May, 2011 Opening Hours: Tues-Sat 10am - 6pm Sunday 12pm - 6pm / Closed Monday Taken across numerous provinces throughout China, Robert van der Hilst’s photographs were born out of a curiosity and continuing interest in the world’s most populated country, China. ‘Chinese Interiors’ was originally conceived as portraits of people and “interior” spaces throughout China. The diversity of locations and consistency of the photographs reveal something much more profound than mere space or representations of the Chinese people. Seen as an entire body of work, the photographs themselves constitute a certain emotional and psychological “interior” to the people and places found across China. The photographs depict and represent a vast nation, often still much rooted in traditional lifestyles and living conditions and with a Confucian value placed on home and family. There are also political remnants and uprooted pasts found in van der Hilst’s photographs, where the scale and speed of social change in the past 50 years of modern China has been almost unparalleled. The photographs are created in close proximity to their subjects, and often in the intimate confines of ordinary people’s homes or one-room living spaces. Simple elements of color and ordinary objects reveal the identities and histories of the people dwelling there. Photographed on film and tripod, van der Hilst’s skill and sensitivity to natural lighting of his human subjects and still life scenes clearly draw direct influences from painters of the Dutch “golden age”. Ordinary still life objects and “interior” scenes that document everyday life and anonymous people also formally become explorations in light, texture, color and composition. From Xinjiang to Shanghai, Yunnan to Hunan to Sichuan, Robert van der Hilst’s epic journey and project of documenting hundreds of ordinary Chinese people and their interior dwelling spaces will prove to be an important contemporary and historical documentation of one of the largest and most dynamic nations of our times. Robert van der Hilst, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, lives and works between Shanghai and Paris. Robert van der Hilst has been a professional photographer since the 1960’s and has made numerous projects from Cuba and South America to Africa, the Middle East and Asia. First visiting China in 1990 on assignment, van der Hilst’s interest in China was immediate upon arrival, and he would later go on to spend much time photographing in Shanghai during 1990-1993. His photographs have been widely exhibited in China and in galleries, museums and photography festival around the world. This will be Robert van der Hilst’s second solo exhibition at m97 Gallery in Shanghai. In 2008 the gallery exhibited his color photographs titled “Shanghai 1990-1993”. _______________________________________________________________________________________ LIANG WEIZHOU “A PAINTED PERSPECTIVE” 22 January - 6 March, 2011 Opening Hours: Tues-Sat 10am - 6pm Sunday 12pm - 6pm / Closed Monday Furthering in a long tradition of pictorialist photographers, Liang Weizhou’s photographic works illustrate new possibilities found between painting and photography. As evident in several of his surrealist and expressionist paintings from the early 1990’s, Liang Weizhou has regularly explored the visual and conceptual relationship between painting and photography in his personal life and artistic practice. Occasionally painting self-portraits featuring a camera and tripod in the background or even himself toting a camera, it is very clear that the medium of photography as a way of seeing and interacting with the world has always been present in Liang Weizhou’s conceptualization and realization of his artwork. Liang Weizhou is a trained and accomplished expressionist painter and thus never considered or imagined himself to be a serious “photographer”. But Liang Weizhou and his relationship with photography have always been at odds: He is a photographer and he is not a photographer. His photographs are photographs and they are not photographs at the same time. Over the course of three decades the artist has gradually drawn his impassioned photography practice closer and closer to his heart and mind as a painter. And in a way, it has been the perfect marriage: the painter’s eye and sensitivity to formal aspects of composition, shape, shadow, texture and light, all lend itself perfectly to be captured and laid out by the photographer on monochrome black and white film (he almost never photographs in color). It then sets the challenge for the painter to convert and interpret the formal aspects laid out plainly by the viewfinder and film to introduce the more abstract nuances of painted color, emotion, and interpreted mood and memory, which results in his photographs to be another form of his painting. Liang Weizhou, born in Shanghai, China, lives and works in the city. His painting and photography works in addition to being widely exhibited in China have also been shown in galleries and museums across Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, and the United States. His photography works are also in the permanent collection of the Shanghai Art Museum where they were exhibited in a solo exhibition in 2007. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Nadav Kander "YANGTZE: THE LONG RIVER" Solo Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: November 6, 2010 - January 15, 2011 Opening Reception for the artist: Saturday November 6, 4-7pm m97 Gallery is pleased to present "YANGTZE, THE LONG RIVER", the latest project by world-renowned photographer Nadav Kander. In 2006, drawn to the immense scale of China and its development, Nadav Kander embarked on the project of photographing the Yangtze River, whose banks and waterways provide home and livelihood for hundreds of millions of Chinese. Taken along the river from its source in remote western China to its mouth just off the shores of Shanghai, these photographs depict the human footprint of habitat and industry that can be seen along the shores of China’s longest river. Taken over a three-year period, Kander’s Yangtze River photographs speak of a China in the process of radical change, and of man’s futility and subjugation of the natural world in the pursuit of development. Following the course of China’s longest river upstream, Kander created a profound and contemplative body of pictures. Much like the Buddhist metaphor of a river itself, the photographs evoke a certain sense of the eternal and ephemeral, of man’s footprints amidst constant change and the flow of time. Documenting the effects of this change on the lives and traditions of the people who live in the river banks – in all, a population greater than that of the United States - resulted in this body of stunning photographic works which capture the timeless toil of man against nature, yet in an incredibly timely manner during a period of major upheaval along the Yangtze River. These photographs, however, go beyond documenting China’s relentless development, as they poetically allude to the fragility of our world and the damage humans may tend to inflict – damage that is not constrained by national boundaries. Kander is well aware that “this project was about us all, about our interrelatedness, and not just about China.” In 2009, Kander’s “Yangtze, The Long River” series was awarded one of photography’s most respected international prizes, the Prix Pictet Photography Award. m97 Gallery exhibited a preview of the work in progress in 2007 and now presents the completed work for the first time in China. A clothbound 188-page monograph of the series has just been published by German publisher Hatje Cantz and will be available in the gallery. _______________________________________________________________________________________MICHAEL WOLF SOLO EXHIBITION “LIFE IN CITIES” Exhibition Dates: September 18 - October 31, 2010 m97 Gallery is pleased to present "LIFE IN CITIES" a solo exhibition of new works by Hong Kong/Paris-based German photographer Michael Wolf. The “LIFE IN CITIES” exhibition comprises four main bodies of Wolf’s most recent works: “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, “Paris Street View”, “Tokyo Compression”, and “Transparent City”. “A Series of Unfortunate Events” and “Paris Street View” (2009-2010), Wolf’s latest projects, use Google’s online Street View database as raw material, navigating Paris and other cities, capturing a series of classic yet evocative street photos. Wolf’s work further continues his exploration of the glories and humiliations of contemporary urban life, while touching on issues of privacy and the overwhelming volume of information accessible online. Not quite appropriation and not quite privacy infringement, Wolf’s photographs walk a fine line between beauty and discomfort, humor and fear. “Tokyo Compression” (2009) captures the crude realities of the rush-hour commute on the crammed Tokyo subway system. Pressed against the subway doors, the passengers react with discomfort to the intrusive presence of the photographer. The “Tokyo Compression” series won 1st prize at the World Press Photo Awards 2009 in the Daily Life category. “Transparent City” (2007) is Wolf’s first body of work to address an American city. Bringing his unique perspective on changing urban environments to Chicago, a city renowned for its architectural legacy, Wolf chose to photograph the central downtown area, focusing specifically on issues of voyeurism and the contemporary urban landscape in flux. The “LIFE IN CITIES” exhibition also showcases works from Michael Wolf’s acclaimed “Architecture Of Density” and “Hong Kong Back Door” series, in which Wolf examines the colorful physical landscape of Hong Kong, as well as its visual and sociological complexity. In addition, two new full-color hard-cover monographs of Michael Wolf’s works will be published in early September in conjunction with the “LIFE IN CITIES” exhibition: "A Series of Unfortunate Events - ASOUE” (72 pages), and "Tokyo Compression" (112 pages). For more information, high resolution images, or to schedule an interview with the artist, please contact the gallery at info@m97gallery.com _______________________________________________________________________________________M97 ARTISTS SUMMER GROUP EXHIBITION Exhibition Dates: August 15 - September 15, 2010 Exhibited artists: BAI Yiluo, CHEN Chunlin, CHEN Wei, FANG Er, HAN Lei, JIANG Zhi, LI Jun, LI Lang, LIANG Weizhou, LI Wei, LU Jun, LU Yanpeng, MENG Jin, SONG Chao, SUN Ji, YANG Yi, ZENG Han, ZHENG Nong _______________________________________________________________________________________ Peter Bialobrzeski "NEON PARADISE" Solo Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: May 15 - July 11, 2010 m97 Gallery is pleased to present "NEON PARADISE" a solo exhibition of photography works by German artist Peter Bialobrzeski. The “Neon Paradise” exhibition showcases for the first time in Shanghai works from Bialobrzeski’s award-winning "Neon Tigers" series, as well as works from his most recent "Paradise Now" series. Bialobrzeski's photographs depict the urban landscape and concrete jungles in metropolises across Southeast Asia. Spanning nearly a decade, these two bodies of work are the perfect juxtapositions and bookends to Bialobrzeski's work in Asia to date. Photographed from 2000-2004, “Neon Tigers” illustrates the infrastructure boom and high-rises of Asia's megacities, while “Paradise Now” shows the intermingling of nature and the man-made neon luminescence in a subtle and startling balance of lush greenery and neon phosphorescence. Peter Bialobrzeski’s works have been exhibited around the world from New York to Hamburg to Mumbai and are in numerous public and private collections. "Neon Paradise" at m97 Gallery will be Bialobrzeski’s first exhibition in Shanghai. The exhibition is supported in part by the Cultural Section of the German Consulate in Shanghai. HAN LEI "The Light of Day" Solo Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: March 13 - May 15, 2010 m97 Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of photography works by Beijing-based artist HAN Lei. The Light of Day exhibition features works from his acclaimed Portraits and Pagodas series, as well as new works from 2009. This is Han Lei’s first solo exhibition in Shanghai since 2004. As one of the first generation of artists in China to make a name for himself with his photographs, Han Lei has been at the forefront of art photography in China for nearly 20 years, producing works in a variety of genres and artistic mediums and consistently exploring and experimenting with both the ordinary and the absurd. Han Lei’s Portraits often focus on the quintessential. Seemingly unconventional subjects become superlative embodiments of deeper social or psychological motifs. CHEN WEI "Photography works 2007-2009" Solo Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: November 14 - January 31, 2010 m97 Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of color photography works by Hangzhou and Beijing based artist CHEN Wei. Drawing from new and recent works from 2007 through 2009, this is Chen Wei’s first solo exhibition in Shanghai. The photography/installation works of 29-year old artist Chen Wei illustrate an intricate imagination fascinated with the eccentric and fanciful pursuits of early science, mathematics, alchemy, philosophers and madmen. Taxidermy, broken mirrors, melted wax, bats, bees, deserted bedrooms, and found objects become the artist’s tableau. With a meticulous attention to details, Chen Wei creates mesmerizing scenes that leave the viewer puzzled by their intricate narrative, fantastic visual impact and odd beauty. In some of the works, the sole human subject resembles an absorbed mad scientist or passionate poet, adding feelings of isolation or estrangement to an already bizarre scene. YANG YI 杨怡 - “Uprooted”《没·故里》 LI JUN 李俊 - "Impermanent Instant"《无常时》 MENG JIN & FANG ER 孟瑾 & 方二 - "Love Hotel"《爱情宾馆》 Three Solo Photography Exhibitions Exhibition Dates: September 11 - November 1, 2009 Yang Yi “Uprooted”: Inspired by a startling dream, Yang Yi’s photographs capture the essence of his disappearing hometown along the Yangtze River, recording the last bits of memories and the last inhabitants of the city before being flooded by the Three Gorges Dam project. In the sepia-colored works, the artist documents the city and surroundings prior to its predestined fate while conceptually immersing the residents under water before the final inundation. A reverie of human life still persisting in this submerged, quiet town that inevitably has now been washed away. Li Jun “Impermanent Instant”: In buddhism, the fundamental concept of "impermanence" teaches that all things are in a constant state of change. Time, existence, and consciousness itself are nothing more than a series of eternally changing impermanent instants. For the unprecedented frenzy of development that is modern China there is perhaps no more fitting a metaphor than dust. It’s a sign of the old world and a sign of the new world. A sign of the ubiquitous concrete high-rise block and cavernous construction site. A sign of the demolished lanes and dwellings of ancient architecture, as well as a sign of pollution and an insatiable industrial appetite. In China, dust is the ever-looming particulate by-product of the physical metamorphosis that envelops the entire country and its people. For photography artist Li Jun, the phenomenon of dust that envelops the simple objects and possessions of his Chengdu apartment and the haunting traces the objects leave offers poetic empirical proof of his and their temporary impermanent existence, however ephemeral, amidst tumultuous environs and changing times. Meng Jin + Fang Er “Love Hotel": Partners Meng Jin and Fang Er’s first collaborative photography project, Love Hotel explores the two artists’ ongoing interest in urban life, architecture, memory and found objects, and the inter-relationship between physical buildings, objects and their social context. The couple worked on-site within the framework of 3-hour ‘Rest’ periods in various ‘short-stay’ hotels creating site-specific sculptures within the confines of their love hotel room and the existing objects found within. ______________________________________________________________________________________ LU JUN 陆军 - "Chinese Landscape Photography Works" SUN JI 孙骥 - "Memory City I & II" Two Solo Photography Exhibitions Exhibition Dates: April 18 - June 5, 2009 m97 Gallery Shanghai is pleased to present two separate solo exhibitions of works by photography artists Lu Jun and Sun Ji. Lu Jun’s large-scale photography works use the three fundamental elements of Chinese landscape painting - water, ink, and paper - combined with techniques of modern photography to create poetic landscapes that flow in both form and color. Lu Jun’s motivation as an artist is to create rather than to imitate, using the tools available to him as a contemporary photography artist. Water and ink captured in photographs, and under the artist’s control, blend together in dreamy clouds of color reinterpreting and advancing one of the most iconic forms of traditional Chinese painting. His subject matter departs from tradition as well in his earlier series “Chinese Real Estate Dream” (2006). In these works - inspired by the real estate boom in Zhuhai (Guangdong Province) of the early 1990s - lyrical, loose brush strokes lead the viewer’s eye downward through what appears to be an idyllic landscape. Yet upon closer examination we see that perched atop the splotches of ink resembling mountaintops sit photographs of suburban villas and modern office high-rises, a depiction of an ever rapidly urbanizing countryside. The exhibition also features works from his most recent series: "How Far From Us" (2007) and "The Scenery That I’ve Seen" (2008), which lead the viewer into a realm of more abstract landscapes of ink, water, paper and photography. Lu Jun lives and works in Zhuhai (Guangdong) and Beijing. The works in Sun Ji’s "Memory City" are architectural collages that speak of urban transformation as destruction and displacement of the old must make way for the new; memories recreated that are both meant to be forgotten and remembered. In his first body of work "Memory City I", Sun Ji uses his camera to create hyperrealist collages of industrial landscapes, factory facades, water towers, smoke stacks and abandoned buildings that result in works of striking scale and formality. Recreating impressions and memories from his childhood, the young Shanghainese artist began in 2005 by carefully assembling single portraits of buildings to create massive black and white compositions that surpass the physical limits of possibility but in the viewer’s imagination renders an almost plausible behemoth construction, alive yet forever a part of Shanghai’s history. In "Memory City II", the smoke stacks and metal pipes are replaced by low-rise facades and elements of Shanghai’s lane life as the young artist’s focus shifts to the ubiquitous Shanghai urban landscape phenomenon of partially torn down residential buildings. The resulting compositions become dense, layered mountains of neighborhoods stacked one atop the other as if waiting to be leveled. Sun Ji lives and works in Shanghai. ______________________________________________________________________________________ GROUP EXHIBITION "Parallax" 《视差》 Group Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: February 21 – April 15, 2009 Opening Reception : Saturday April 18, 5 – 8pm m97 Gallery Shanghai is pleased to present "Parallax", a group exhibition of photographic works by m97 Gallery artists Chen Chunlin, James W. Delano, Fang Er, Greg Girard, Han Lei, Robert van der Hilst, Jiang Zhi, Nadav Kander, Liang Weizhou, Meng Jin, Michael Wolf, and Zheng Nong. Parallax is the effect whereby the distance between two objects appears to shift when viewed from different vantage points and can help determine an otherwise unknown distance. Following on this concept, the "Parallax" exhibition places together two or more works by each artist from different times in their career. Creating an imaginary sense of distance by juxtaposing photographs of different size, subject matter, and year of creation presents an opportunity for the viewer to see how the artist’s focus and technique has developed creatively or conceptually and how the style of their work has changed or remained consistent. By bringing together photographs from different bodies of work by each artist from different stages in their career, "Parallax" highlights the evolution of each artist’s style and subject matter or focus, creating a sense of context and contrast as well as taking into consideration the element of time throughout the artist’s overall creative development, thus helping to enrich our perception and understanding of the artist’s progression and greater body of work as a whole. For additional photos, interviews or other media queries, please contact m97 Gallery at: info@m97gallery.com or by phone: (+8621) 6266.1597. Tuesday-Sunday 10:30am-6:30pm (Monday by appointment only). ______________________________________________________________________________________ GROUP EXHIBITION "Exquisite Corpse: China Surreal" 《精致的尸体：超现实中国》 Group Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: November 1, 2008 - February 04, 2009 m97 Gallery Shanghai is pleased to present "Exquisite Corpse: China Surreal", a dynamic group exhibition of photographic works by BAI Yiluo, CHEN Wei, DONG Wensheng, FANG Er, HAN Lei, HONG Lei, JIANG Zhi, LIU Ren, LI Wei, LU Jun, MA Liang, MAO Yu, MENG Jin, SHENG Qi, SUN Ji, YANG Yi, YU Ji, WANG Ningde, ZENG Han, and ZHANG Dali. Co-curated by Mathieu Borysevicz and m97 Gallery, this exhibition uses the Surrealists’ game of Exquisite Corpse as a means to explore the collective subconscious of contemporary Chinese artists through the medium of photography. Twenty emerging and established artists present uncanny images arranged in a delicately composed sequence of non-sequiturs that reveal the surreality of today’s China. In the exhibition "Exquisite Corpse: China Surreal,” an eclectic array of work by artists of different generations and backgrounds expose the “mental contagion” in today’s China, whereby culture, tradition, the body and imagination have all been jarred by rapid social transformation. Drawing from China’s shared grab bag of surrealistic inspiration, artists have produced works that unintentionally inform, influence and question one another’s. Each work in this exhibition is linked to the next by visual or conceptual themes, sometimes subtle, sometimes explicit, to produce one communal Exquisite Corpse. It is a succession of cryptic insights that only China’s present reality could have shaped and which, in the end, yields only more enigmas. ______________________________________________________________________________________ ZENG HAN & YANG CHANGHONG "Soul Stealer" 《叫魂》 Solo Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: September 6-October 22, 2008 Opening Reception: Saturday September 6, 4-7 pm m97 Gallery Shanghai is pleased to present "Soul Stealer", an exhibition of photographic works by Zeng Han and Yang Changhong. "Soul Stealer" "Soul Stealer" is a mysterious four-part series of portraits and landscapes, evaluating a theatrical and spiritual connection of modern and traditional role play between characters in ancient Chinese operas and those of current global popular culture. The Soul Stealer series are: Part I: "Landplay" (from Anshun, Guizhou Province), Part II: "Cosplay" (Shenzhen, Guangdong Province), Part III: "Mulian Opera" (Shaoyang, Hunan Province), and Part IV: "World of Warcraft" (Chongqing). By using photography as a portal to another dimension, Zeng and Yang steal a glimpse of the soul of someone from another place and time, while documenting each character’s personal transformation. For them, this body of work allows a platform where “time becomes mingled and under such conditions, ancient spirits can gather together from all different times, where the performers in these monumental characters find themselves being transformed into an invented being or spirit of heroic proportions.” ______________________________________________________________________________________ CHEN CHUNLIN "Lessons Learned in One Day" 《相：一日之鉴》 Solo Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: June 28 - August 21, 2008 Opening Reception: Saturday June 28, 4 - 7 pm m97 Gallery Shanghai is pleased to present "Lessons Learned in One Day," a solo exhibition of photographic works by Chen Chunlin. "Lessons Learned in One Day" is a series of montages of portraits taken in the same location over the course of a day as a way for the photographer to interface and connect with his environs and, more importantly, with the anonymous people that pass before his lens. "One day might seem short, but inspired by the Buddhist belief behind William Blake's poem 'To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower', I thought that one day of photographing will hold both certainties and coincidences," says Chunlin. With the goal of exploring the changing face of China through the observation of people, Chen Chunlin started this photographic project in his hometown of Chengdu and soon curiosity took him to other cities in Sichuan and later to other provinces around China. As the Chinese title of this body of work implies ('Xiang') Chunlin's work is about the process of physically interacting with people in a certain place and time, using photography as an almost scientific tool of measurement to take a reading of the "face" of China. In this sense, his montages become an anthropological study. ______________________________________________________________________________________ JAMES WHITLOW DELANO "Empire: Impressions from China" 《帝国：印象中国》 Solo Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: May 17 - June 18, 2008 Opening Reception: Saturday May 17, 5 - 7 pm m97 Gallery is pleased to present “Empire: Impressions from China,” a solo exhibition by James Whitlow Delano of his profound black-and-white images of China taken between 1994 and 2004. This award-winning, Tokyo-based American photographer has one of the most significant bodies of work about China’s past 15 years by a foreign photographer. This vast body of work is catalogued in his book, Empire: Impressions of China, which won the 2005 Award of Excellence from Communication Arts. ______________________________________________________________________________________ LIANG WEIZHOU "Scenery and Still Life" 《景物志》 Solo Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: March 29 - May 8, 2008 Opening Reception: Saturday March 29, 5 - 7 pm m97 Gallery Shanghai is pleased to present Liang Weizhou’s solo exhibition of photographic works in this new exhibition titled “Scenery & Still Life”. The Shanghainese painter, most well known over the past fifteen years for his expressionist paintings, has been gaining critical acclaim and exposure for his new body of photography-based works. As evident in several of his earlier paintings from the 1990’s, Liang Weizhou has regularly explored the visual and conceptual relationship between painting and photography. Occasionally going so far as painting self-portraits with a camera and tripod on his canvas, it is clear the medium of photography and the contemplation of its ability to capture the myriad details before the artist’s eyes has always been present in Liang Weizhou’s conceptualization and realization of his artwork. After continued exploration and experimentation of the photographic image and process, Liang Weizhou has now clearly discovered his own visual language of interweaving his painting aesthetics with the continuing theme and subject matter of the often isolated and existential ordinary and intimate still life interiors. This can be seen in his photographs depicting a single hanging light bulb or an electrical socket, as well as the painterly and poetic landscapes found in his photographs from the nature reserve on Chongming Island, or in photographs such as “Small Fishing Boat” from Yunnan Province. Furthering in a long tradition of artists exploring the possibilities found between painting and photography, Liang Weizhou’s photographic works can be seen as a direct evolution from his earlier roots in painting. Now empowering traditional photography with various techniques of photo montage, selective coloring, painting and digital retouching, the photographs of Liang Weizhou offer the viewer an abstract and dreamlike aesthetic that can often only be found in painting itself. ______________________________________________________________________________________ ROBERT VAN DER HILST "Shanghai: 1990-1993" 《上海：1990年－1993年》 Solo Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: Feb 16 - March 21, 2008 Opening Reception: Saturday Feb 16, 5 - 8 pm m97 Gallery is pleased to announce new photography works by Dutch photographer Robert van der Hilst “Shanghai: 1990-1993”. He uses different camera languages to present us a grand picture of the people and streets of Shanghai beginning with Robert’s color Kodachrome works in the early 1990s to the recent past 5 years of Howard French’s black and white documentary work in the alleyways of Shanghai. Robert van der Hilst’s early color work from “Shanghai: 1990-1993” captures the early roots of this large metropolis as it readies itself for the great thrust forward towards modernization. Bringing a strong sense of color and composition to his work in the streets of Shanghai, Robert’s color Kodachrome photographs, now viewed some 18 years later, bring a sense of historical reflection after the past 2 decades of breakneck development in China’s financial capital. His subjects and sceneries are at once both familiar and foreign to the viewer. The subtleties and textures of Robert’s works, as well as the overall appearance of the city and its people, are captured by the Dutch photographer as he first encounters a city poised on the edge of a newfound greatness. First traveling to Shanghai in 1990 on assignment for Vogue Magazine to feature a reportage of the city of Shanghai, Robert became fascinated by his first encounter with China and later made a total of 7 trips to Shanghai in the course of 3 years. ______________________________________________________________________________________ LI JUN "Trapped2" 《受困 2》 Solo Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: Jan 15 - Feb 15, 2008 Opening Reception: Saturday Jan 15, 5 - 8 pm m97 Gallery is pleased to present “Trapped2”, a solo photography exhibition of large color portraits by Chengdu-based photographer Li Jun. Li Jun’s new “Trapped 2” color photographs are an extension from his first body of black-and-white portraits (“Trapped”), where the photographer documented the isolation and aspirations of amateur Sichuan Opera performers, often with characters in full dress exiting backstage, bringing a fleeting sense of emotion to the photographer’s works and the lives of his subjects. Li Jun’s “Trapped 2” color photographs further explores the sentiment and isolation of the individual trapped within the many layers of society and the human condition. Unlike other approaches to portraiture, Li Jun’s photographs do not portray the expression of the face, but focus on the body language of his subjects to bring the viewer a more estranged sense of physical, emotional or psychological isolation and entrapment. Deliberately facing away from the camera, the subjects seem to be rejecting the connection with the artist and the outside world, and in turn resisting the viewer, giving the photographs a guarded sense of human sorrow, loss, shame, frustration or anger. As the artist says: “I hope that these color photographs are closer to the various layers of reality than my previous black and white work. The photographs still maintain their physical meaning – bunched up, stuck together, and sturdy, but with a more fragile and wounded inner core". Born in Chongqing, Li Jun first studied at the Chongqing Normal University - College of Literature and Journalism, then turned his attention to photography. He Worked at the photography department - Central Academy of Fine Arts. He now works and lives in Chengdu. For additional photographs, interviews or other media queries, please contact m97 Gallery at: info@m97gallery.com or by phone: (+8621) 6266.1597. Opening Hours: Daily 11am – 6pm ______________________________________________________________________________________ MENG JIN & FANG ER "Lost & Found" 《失去 • 寻获》 Two Solo Photography Exhibitions Exhibition Dates: Nov 3 - Dec 21, 2007 Opening Reception: Saturday Nov 3, 5 - 7 pm m97 Gallery is pleased to present “Lost & Found”, an exhibition with works by Meng Jin and Fang Er, a powerful young artistic couple whose works are at once strikingly different in style and approach, but equal in their embrace of the mystery that enshrouds both personal emotions and larger issues that address all society. “Lost & Found” presents photographic works from five different series: Meng Jin’s “Every Room is Illuminated” (2006-07), “A Room With a View” (2000-02), “Will You Come? Or Shall I Go?” (2003), and Fang Er’s “The Zoo” (2006-07) and “The Sweetest Thing” (2004). Fang Er’s “The Hidden Depth” and Meng Jin’s “14 Rooms” video works also illustrate both artists’ unique approach to addressing ideas of confusion, chaos, memory and consequence. Fang Er’s work engages the viewer with a playful yet conscientious dialogue often blending chaotic elements of human constructs with elements in the natural world. Meng Jin’s exploration of the confines of interior space and objects act as a historical reflection of the passage of time and a reminder of consequence in relation to human industry and habitation with allusions to a collective psyche often resonating with political undertones. Belonging to an emerging generation of younger artists, Meng Jin and Fang Er’s works embody the freedom of their generation having grown up without the confines of direct political repression or hardship. “In China during this era of enormous change, from the clear, worldly dividing lines of East and West, to the extensive globalization of free trade today, all these changes bring about in us a deeper interest and a new understanding for topics such as growth, life, responsibility, identity, city, history, country and so on. Our works are a record of these times of various change that we witness … To lose, to find, to gain … just like an endless journey, bringing a sense of mystery to all that we know and feel in the world, filling us with a deep sense of respect for all these things.” – Meng Jin + Fang Er Fang Er was born in Taipei and Meng Jin in Chongqing; they are currently based in Beijing and this is their first joint solo exhibition in Shanghai. For additional photographs, interviews or other media queries, please contact m97 Gallery at: info@m97gallery.com or by phone: (+8621) 6266.1597. Tuesday-Sunday 10:30-18:30. ______________________________________________________________________________________ GROUP EXHIBITION "Document / Portrait" 《实／像》 Group Photography exhibition Exhibition Dates: Sep 4 - Oct 11, 2007 Opening Reception: Saturday Sep 8, 5 - 8 pm m97 Gallery is pleased to present “Document / Portrait”, a group exhibition with works by 12 established as well as emerging photographers living or working in China. Photographers included in the exhibition are Chen Chunlin, Li Jun, Li Lang, Lu Ning, Peng & Chen, Song Chao, Yan Cheng, Zeng Han, Daniel Traub, Olaf Blecker, Robert van der Hilst, and James Whitlow Delano. “Document / Portrait” is a broad look at a diverse range of photographic styles and subject matter depicting the many faces and facets of China each illustrating various aspects of modern Chinese society all through the genre of portraiture. Both urban and rural realities are explored, and traditional Chinese ethnic and cultural symbols are seen alongside documents of China’s ever-expanding and often anonymous urban centers. As a cornerstone of photography and painting, the “portrait” has always been approached by artists not only to illustrate a person’s appearance, but more often to capture the intangibles of a person’s spirit, sentiment, or soul. As a fundamental element of photography, the role of the photograph as a “document” allows the viewer to explore a particular person, place or issue. Working in different regions of China, each participating photographer brings a unique style and point of view focusing on various elements of China’s fast-changing society. From Chengdu, Guizhou and Guangzhou to Shanghai and Beijing, “Document / Portrait” explores the many sides and many faces of modern China, at times acting as a true document of a people and a place, but more often than not also illustrating how the individual photographer views and relates to the social and cultural world that their work addresses. For additional photographs, interviews or other media queries, please contact m97 Gallery at: info@m97gallery.com or by phone: (+8621) 6266.1597. Tuesday-Sunday 10:30-18:30. ______________________________________________________________________________________ ZHENG NONG "Chemical Landscape" 《化学风景》 Solo Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: July 7 - Aug 17, 2007 Opening Reception: Saturday July 7, 5 - 7 pm m97 Gallery is pleased to present "Chemical Landscape", a solo photography exhibition by Beijing-based photographer Zheng Nong. "Chemical Landscape" is an experimental body of color photographs in which the artist has created virtual landscapes on film from the chemical reaction of exposing color film directly to light. The artist has deliberately broken the boundaries of the familiar viewfinder and experimented with more unconventional realms of the film plane resulting in surreal landscapes blurring the boundaries of fact and fiction. These lush, futuristic landscapes captivate the viewer with exploding fiery sunsets and electric yellow skyscapes. "Chemical Landscape" technically and aesthetically presents us with a purity and freshness and an organic sense of imagination that emanates from the almost zen-like manner in which the photographs were made. When considering the current trends of digital manipulation in contemporary photography, Zheng Nong's "Chemical Landscape" creates a pure and perfect combination for a fantastical reality to both please and deceive the viewer. But by returning to the most fundamental aspects of photography - the "chemical" reaction of light directly striking film - Zheng Nong's series of landscapes involve no digital manipulation and appear more to be an alchemic explosion resulting in a world of virtual, abstract landscapes. Like the photographs themselves, Zheng Nong's work is a further exploration of new frontiers in contemporary photography, merging tradition with innovation and experimentation. "Chemical Landscape" is the fruit of an artist's exploration and discovery, and is a testament to the endless imagination and pursuit of possibility for the contemporary photographer. ______________________________________________________________________________________ YAN CHENG & YAN CHANGJIANG “Theme: Park” 《主题 : 公园》 Solo Photography Exhibitions Exhibition Dates: June 2 – June 28, 2007 Opening Reception: Saturday June 2, 4 - 6 pm m97 Gallery is pleased to present “Theme: Park”, two black-and-white solo photography exhibitions by Yan Cheng and Yan Changjiang. Yan Cheng’s series of photographs titled “Echo” is a still reflection on the time-worn amusement parks in China’s rust-belt city of Shenyang. Yan Changjiang’s series “Zoo at Night” captures the freedom and confinement of wild creatures roaming the darkness in an animal park on the outskirts of Guangzhou. Without focusing on the public, both bodies of work are explorations of man-made public space, theme-park-like creations for human entertainment, human consumption, and human escape. Yan Cheng’s “Echo” photographs are a meditation of silence in the city, an urban playground, void of people. The rusted rides and roller coasters somehow embodying the innocence of the children that once played upon them. Evoking a sense of nostalgia through his photographs, Yan Cheng’s “Echo” series is a testament to the passage of time and the ever-changing pleasures and pastimes of modern society. Now replaced by internet bars, video games, and a barrage of electronic and virtual entertainment, “Echo” asks the viewer to consider the notion of innocence lost and to ponder the profundity that can be found in something as simple as a day at the park. Yan Changjiang’s “Zoo at Night” photographs depict animals on display and others roaming the darkness within the confines of a nighttime zoo. Giraffes juxtaposed with light poles, flamingos under floodlights, antelope running across paved paths. Yan Changjiang’s photographs attain a “magical realism” through his use of lighting as well as the exotic creatures that become his suburban subjects. In the end, the metaphor of his work implies that we the viewers are just as much the animals on display, at times running wildly through the night, at times looking for respite from the glare of the artificial street lights, all within the boundaries of our own theme park. ______________________________________________________________________________________ MICHAEL WOLF "China Projects" 《中国项目》 Solo Photography Exhibition Exhibition Dates: April 14 - May 28, 2007 Opening Reception: Saturday April 14, 6 - 8 pm m97 Gallery Shanghai is pleased to show Michael Wolf's solo photography exhibition titled "China Projects". As one of the more prolific international photography artists working in the China region, the Hong Kong-based German photographer's work examines the complex social and physical landscape of China and Hong Kong. The "China Projects" exhibition comprises three different bodies of Wolf's work that have never before been exhibited in China: 100 x 100, Copy Artist, and The Real Toy Story. Focusing on a wide variety of subject matter, Wolf's formal yet humanistic approach to photography raises various questions concerning modern development, manufacturing, consumerism and even the very nature of art itself. The Real Toy Story: Wolf's project "The Real Toy Story" was originally conceived and produced as a large-scale installation. It features photographic portraits of Chinese toy factory workers surrounded on the walls with 20,000 used plastic toys, all made in China. Wolf collected each and every toy, scouring flea markets in the United States, in an effort to exhibit a cross section of American pop culture. The work portrays the human presence behind mass-produced goods and provides viewers with a visceral, immersive experience that evokes the sensation of density endemic to urban areas of the region. The installation has been exhibited in various international museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, USA. This body of work will be exhibited for the first time at m97 Gallery in Shanghai as a 6-panel installation made up of photographs recreating the entire original installation. Copy Artist: This series of portraits was photographed in the back alleyways of Shenzhen's famous Dafen "Art Village," where an estimated 5 million paintings are produced and copied each year, many of which are facsimiles of famous masterpieces. A Van Gogh can cost as little as 15 yuan, a Da Vinci can cost close to 50 yuan. Stylistically similar to his "Back Door" series of photographs in Hong Kong, Wolf's "Copy Artist" portraits wryly nudge the viewer to consider the very nature of art and artistry itself, all set against a backdrop of assembly-line-like mass production, alluding to the very fabric of Shenzhen and Guangdong. 100 x 100: In his "100 X 100" series, Michael Wolf focuses on 100 apartments (each 100 square feet – approximately 10 square meters) in the oldest housing development in Hong Kong, which is slated for demolition. The series explores the concept of "personal space" in Hong Kong, with 100 photographs that document the human urge to individualize the impersonal and create a distinct personality through human details amid massive monotony. In our Viewing Rooms we are also showing London-based Nadav Kander's newest Yangzte River photographs as well as Industrial Architecture works by Michael Wolf. Back to dealer/gallery profile
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