Lin Zhipeng (aka No.223) is a leading figure of new Chinese photography and famous for his portrayal of unconventional Chinese youth. In an exhibition at M97 Gallery, in Shanghai, some 50 photographs depict his quotidian surroundings through the prism of beauty and emotion. Lin’s work has come to reflect and define a certain zeitgeist of the post-80’s and 90’s generation of non- mainstream Chinese youth. Amidst an otherwise conservative and often closed traditional society and cultural background, Lin’s photographs act as a collective not-so-private diary of a young generation wishing to escape the pressures from a high-stakes society and play within its limits. Faded flowers tangled with flesh tones, myriad patterns mixing with an emotional ambiguity of both love and chaos, fantasy and eroticism. Naming himself “No. 223” after the police character in Wong Kar-Wai’s movie Chungking Express, Lin Zhipeng also adopts a sense of the Hong Kong director’s poetic and dreamy atmosphere as well as the loneliness and mystery of many of his film’s characters.
Lin Zhipeng, No.223 @ M97
June 3 to August 13, 2017
M97 Gallery
363 Changping Rd, Jingan Qu
Shanghai Shi
China
