Five of the biggest names in contemporary Chinese photography—Mo Yi, Zhang Xiao, Fu Yu, Yang Yongliang and Peikwen Cheng—are currently on view at the Magda Danysz Gallery in Shanghai as part of the exhibition Landscapes. This event highlights the dynamism of the new Chinese photography scene. It shows that the landscape, whether urban, natural, architectural or imaginary, is now, perhaps more than ever, a central concern of Chinese artists.
All kinds of imagery and technique are on display. After receiving much attention for his series Coastline, Zhang Xiao (b. 1981) shows a formidable technical and pictorial mastery in this new color series of careful compositions and contrasts. The country’s coastal regions are being overrun by tourism and real estate development. Mo Yi (b. 1958) has been photographing city life in China for the past thirty years, combining personal intuition with social commitment.
Alongside the real-life landscapes are landscapes from dreams—and nightmares. The disturbing photographs of Yang Yongliang (b. 1980) blend utopia and dystopia, relying on both shanshui (a Chinese word for traditional landscape painting) and modern digital techniques. Visions of a frightening, poetic world, these works reflect the attention he pays to the rapidly transforming city of his birth, Shanghai, where he still lives. This city, with its growing number of ruins, inspires the contradictory emotions of melancholy and fascination. For the occasion, the gallery selected photographs taken from his series Bowl of Taipei, in which the artist shrinks natural landscapes and places them in a bowl of rice.
Peikwen Cheng (b. 1975) is a self-taught, American-born photographer who now lives in Beijing. The exhibition features his black-and-white series Lost and Found, shot over the last thirteen years at the Burning Man festival in the United States. His desert landscapes peopled with fantastic figures seem to cross the border between surrealism and the absurd.
Read the full article on the French version of l’Oeil
Landscapes
Mo Yi, Zhang Xiao, Fu Yu, Yang Yongliang et Peikwen Cheng
Until February 28th, 2014
Magda Danysz Gallery
188 Linqing Road (x Pingliang Road)
Shanghai
Chine
