Words by Courtney Miceli, photos by Ren Hang and Jiang Penyi
Mapped throughout the walls of the Shanghai Exhibition Center will soon be remnants from the lives and minds of artists around the globe. PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai is maturing into its fourth year as one of China’s largest art fairs for the photographic medium. This month, 14 countries represented across 40 galleries will be featured during the expo.
The organizers are assembling some of the world’s most innovative contemporary photographers, many of whom, such as Richard Misrach, Jeff Brouws, and Paulette Tavormina of the Robert Mann Gallery in New York, have never before showcased in China.
Other new artwork this year includes a hefty 13-by-3-meter installation by Shanghainese duo Birdhead, and a digital Daata Editions Commission with Chinese artist Lu Yang, who is known for her explicit and often disturbing multimedia works. Luckily for the audience, her provocative piece will be available as a free download via the Daata Editions website.
This bold step away from the traditional buyer’s fair and into the realm of digital art challenges visitors to think beyond the viewfinder and understand how photography can be adapted for the future. According to PHOTOFAIRS group fair director, Georgia Griffiths, “Internet-based art is the next frontier.”
Yet as the fair lengthens its branches to create an international and futuristic framework, it also continues to deepen its roots in China’s arts scene. Spotlight, for example, is a new solo exhibition that honors the late Chinese photographer, Ren Hang, who passed away in February.
Work from the late Ren Huang.
Ren was known for his unconventional eye and fearless approach behind the lens. Nineteen works from his final collection, Beauty without Beards, will be reexamined at PHOTOFAIRS.
“It was important to pay tribute to the artist, who was groundbreaking for his generation,” Griffiths says. “Ren Hang’s work is full of contrasts – both sexy and humorous, classical yet cutting-edge.”
“Ren Hang’s work is full of contrasts – both sexy and humorous, classical yet cutting-edge.”
One of the exhibitions making a comeback this year is Insights, a program that annually focuses on a key visual element that revolutionized the evolving photography market. This year, that element is color.
“One can say color is one of the defining characters of my work, but this was not my intention,” says Jiang Pengyi, one of the artists showcasing in Insights.
Jiang, who lives and works in Beijing, is showing work from two of his series, The Sun Matched with the Sea and Dissolution. Both explore the applications of instant film with erotic imagery shot directly from the pages of adult magazines, though he manipulates each image almost beyond recognition during the developing process.
“By separating and re-contextualising the image from its original setting, I give a sculptural body to the once flat images,” says Jiang.
Due to the composition of the Polaroid film material, abandoning control over color results in works that embody independence and a lust for the unknown.
“I conceived my recent development in art as an existential inquiry into the solitude of being, and the role of sexuality in human relationality and spirituality,” says Jiang. “In the words of Georges Bataille, existence is inevitably lonely, and the only way to briefly connect with another being is through art and eroticism.”
Some of Jiang Penyi's works, including The Sun Matched with the Sea and Blindspot.
After wrapping in Shanghai, the PHOTOFAIRS exhibition will move on to San Francisco, where its programs will be showcased to yet another international audience. And despite San Francisco’s strong and enduring arts scene, PHOTOFAIRS organizers say they’re glad to keep home base situated in the ever-changing city of Shanghai.
“It’s an exciting time to be working in China,” says Griffiths. “The galleries and artists are hugely ambitious and push the boundaries of expectation.”
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PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai, Sep 8-10. Shanghai Exhibition Center, see event listing.
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