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until 19.03. | #2657ARTatBerlin | Migrant Bird Space shows from 17th January 2020 the exhibition CHINA FEVER with artworks by the photographers Luo Yang, Lin Zhipeng (No. 223) and Ren Hang.
Chinese photographers Luo Yang, Lin Zhipeng (aka. No. 223) and Ren Hang portray a Chinese subculture that defies imposed expectations and stereotypes. Their depictions of a conflicted,hedonistic youth are an autobiographical portrayal of their own generation in urban China: playful, provocative and daring, often imbued with a dark, repressed mysticism. Although each of them has a distinct style and individual artistic language, their works commonly revolve around questions of adolescence and adulthood, individuality and self-expression. Raw, intimate and direct, their portraits are intense accounts of the private lives of their friends and peers. Luo Yang, No. 223 and Ren Hang, whose suicide shook the art-world in early 2017, are known as the ‘80’s artists’, exploring the life and mindset of China’s urban youth.
Their photographic styles alternate between spontaneous snapshot aesthetics and stylised images with often surreal compositions, involving bodies and limbs entangled in play, lots of nude skin, contrasted with brightly coloured props, hairs, red lips and nails. Their work reflects a deep fascination with life’s oscillation between the ambiguous extremes of contemporary Chinese culture. Above all, it is a testament to their subject’s individuality.
Just as their portrayed characters, the 80’s artists belong to a generation that often finds itself trapped in-between contradictory poles of traditional cultural values and the modern lifestyles of contemporary urban China. Luo Yang, Lin Zhipeng and Ren Hang have been born directly into globalization, growing up without personal experiences of political unrest or economic hardship. Simultaneously, as Western consumerism and its emphasis on free choice have taken hold in China, modern Chinese culture, too, gradually shifts from collectivist towards individualist values. The clash between the dichotomous forces of traditional and modern ideologies —steadfast Confucian values and Western individualist thought — continues to provide a field of tension in current youth culture. It is within this friction that the work of the 80’s artists takes place. Luo Yang and No. 223 have repeatedly emphasized that they are not thinking in ideological or even political frameworks. Instead, they are interested in the present state of self, in contemporaneity and the everyday life and mind of the young people around them. China’s social and economic transformation, domestic traditions, politics and ideologies are inextricably woven into their work; they are an inevitable part of their perspective as contemporary artists brought up in China. Yet these are subtexts, present by virtue of their very absence rather than evidenced in visible subject matter.
By utilizing the human body, Luo Yang, No. 223 and Ren Hang make individuality explicit. As pivotal voices of their generation, their photographs tell us about the mind-set of young urban Chinese today, reflecting diverse social phenomena and dispelling Western stereotypes of a conformist or repressed Chinese youth. Looking at their works means learning about facets of the myriad ways in which young Chinese today live and express themselves: against the background of their cultural upbringing and in the present context of their life in a globalized society that is still heavily infused with traditional values.
Photo-Book: China Fever, publ. by Migrant Bird Space & Shanghai Shengqian Printing Co. Ltd. will be released 16 Jan. 2020.
Lin Zhipeng (No.223)
Naming himself “No. 223” after the police character in Wong Kar-Wai’s cult-classic Chungking Express, Lin Zhipeng also adopts a sense of the Hong Kong director’s poetic, dream-like atmosphere as well as the emotional ambiguity of many of his film’s characters. Born in Guangdong in 1979, Lin Zhipeng graduated from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies with a major in English. In 2003, he created his blog “North Latitude 23” where he published everyday pictures accompanied by short texts. His blog about Chinese urban subculture received millions of views and made him popular among the web community. He has since exhibited his works widely in Asia and Europe, while also having published photography books in Taiwan, France, Canada and Japan. He lives and works in Beijing.
Solo Exhibitions
2019
Amphibian Relationships @The Delaware Contemporary, Delaware
No. 223 @Akio Nagasawa Gallery Aoyama, Tokyo
No. 223 @The Walther Collection feats Then And Now, The Walther Collection, Neu Ulm
No. 223 @ in-between Gallery, Paris
2018
No. 223 @Grand Amour, Grand Amour Hotel, Paris
No. 223 @Stieglitz19, Stieglitz19 Gallery, Antwerp
2017
No. 223 @M97, M97 Gallery, Shanghai
2016
No. 223 @de Sarthe Beijing Gallery, Beijing
No. 223. Hidden Track, Stieglitz19 Gallery, Antwerp
2014
No. 223 @Loppis Galleria, Parma
Velvet Pogo, Kui Yuan Gallery, Guangzhou
2013
The Peaches, ATTIC, Taipei
2008
Me Party, Songzhuang Art Museum, Beijing
Composition In Time, GZOP Lab, Guangzhou
Group Exhibitions (Selection)
2019
I AM (AT WAR) IN LOVE WITH THE OBVIOUS, The Address Gallery, Brescia
Chinese Spring Part 4, Stieglitz19 Gallery, Antwerp
2018
EL CUERPO REINTERPRETADO, NUE Gallerie, Valencia
Ten Directions: The 10th Anniversary Exhibition of The Three Shadows Photography Award, Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing
Chinese Spring #3, Stieglitz19 Gallery，Antwerp
A nous la mode! , Temple Beijing / Bailian Centre Shanghai / Three Shadows Xiamen / Chengdu Museum
2017
The World Section, Xi’an Art Museum, Xi’an
PHOTOSYNTHESIS, M97 Gallery, Shanghai
Poem, Zhong Gallery, Beijing
2016
Meet Daido Moriyama, Aoman Space, Beijing
Illuminate Your Beauty, UCCA, Beijing
BredaPhoto International Photofestival, Breda
2016
Teetering at The Edge of The World-Reading the Chinese Contemporary, Espacio de Arte
Contemporeáno (EAC), Montevideo, Uruguay
This is not China anymore, GuatePhoto International Photography Festival, Antigua, Guatemala
Lin Zhipeng, Grand Amour. Olzha’s Cigarettes 2018
Lin Zhipeng, Lazy Style 2013
Lin Zhipeng, Grand Amour, Anna Mistal 2018
Lin Zhipeng, Dan’s Tatoo 2014
Luo Yang
Luo Yang, born 1984 in Liaoning Province in China’s northeast, graduated from the prestigious Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang in 2009. A graphic designer by education, she instead decided to pursue her interest and talent in photography. After numerous exhibitions in Asia and abroad, Luo is well-acclaimed internationally and has been featured by ARTE, ZDF Aspekte, Spiegel Online or Le Figaro International, amongst others major media outlets. Her monograph GIRLS was published on occasion of the 10-year anniversary of her series in 2018. In the same year, BBC voted her among the 100 most inspiring women world-wide. She recently received the Jimei x Arles Women Photographer’s Award. In Luo’s work, highly staged portraits and carefully constructed poses alternate with a raw, blurred snapshot-aesthetic. She lives and works in Shanghai.
Solo Exhibitions
2019
Youth: Jimei x Arles Photography Festival. Jimei Citizen Square Main Exhibition, Xiamen
GIRLS: H27 Gallery, Berlin
GIRLS: 2008-2018, Woofpack Gallery/RDX Ofsite, Bangkok,
2018
GIRLS, MO-Industries & Edition Lammerhuber, Book-Launch Exhibition, Vienna
2017
GIRLS, MO-Industries, The OPPOSITE HOUSE, Beijing
GIRLS, MO-Industries, Hong Kong
2016
GIRLS, MO-Industries, Berlin
2009
LUO YANG Photography Exhibition, Tai Kang Top Space, Beijing
Group Exhibitions (Selection)
2018
Three Shadows Photography Art Center, “Ten Directions: the 10th Anniversary Exhibition of the
Three Shadows Photography Award”, Beijing
Vermilion Art Gallery, “Sworn Sisters”, Sydney
2017
Poem, Zhong Gallery, Beijing, China
Between Reality and Ideal: 40 Years of Chinese Photography (1976-2017), Three Shadows, Beijing,
Photograping the Female, Focus Photography Festival, Mumbai
2016
EVAW Art Exhibition, UN WOMEN, Crossroads Centre, Beijing
Song Zhuang Art Center 10 Years, Group Show, Songzhuang Museum, Beijing
2015
Artists Group Exhibition, Stieglitz19, Antwerp, Belgium
2013
Ai Weiwei “FUCK OFF II” Groninger Museum, The Netherlands
2011
Big Louder, Beijing
2010
KIC “Small World” Open Art Exhibition, Shanghai
Roca Contemporary Art Exhibition, Xiamen, Fujian
Photography Season Beijing, Pasture Land, Beijing
2009
Photography Exhibition Lishui, Lishui, Zhejiang
Multimedia Short Film Festival Southern, Southern Television, Guangzhou
Guangzhou International Photography Biennale, Guangzhou Art Museum, Guangzhou
Art Photography Exhibition, Beijing Agriculture Exhibition Hall, Beijing
Three Shadows Awards Show, Three Shadows Photography Centre, Beijing, China
2008
“Seventh Sense” Pingyao International Photography Exhibition, Pingyao, China
Luo Yang, Jin Jing & Liuliu 2018
Luo Yang, Ren Fang 2019
Luo Yang, Jian Shan 2017
Ren Hang
Ren Hang, born 1987 in Changchun, is acclaimed for his photographic work but also for his poetry, which he published online and in numerous books. His imagery displays an abstract, stylised playfulness, featuring nude bodies arranged in geometrical patterns, set amidst bizarre urban and natural sceneries. His often erotic imagery is endowed with manifold references to art history and literature. Hang has had exhibitions in Asia and Europe and received the Third Terna Contemporary Art Award in 2010. His largest retrospective yet, “LOVE” is on view at C/O Berlin until end of February 2020. He took his own life in Beijing in 2017.
Solo Exhibitions
2019
Love. Ren Hang. C/O Berlin, Berlin
Love. Ren Hang. Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France
2018
Wake up Together. Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, England
2017
Human Love. Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm
Naked/Nude. Foam Photography Museum, Amsterdam
Beauty without Beards. Modern Art Base, Shanghai
2016
Athens Love. Klein Sun Gallery, New York
What we do is secret. Mama Gallery, Los Angeles
⽩⽩⽇⽇升天. Modernsky Lab, Beijing
2015
New Love. Matchbaco Gallery, Tokyo
Morphology. HDM Gallery, Hangzhou
Occupy Atopos #Ren Hang. Atopos cvc, Athens
In Presence of Ren Hang. Stieglitz 19 Gallery, Antwerp
野⽣. OstLicht Gallery, Vienna
Ren Hang 2014. Capricious 88 Gallery, New York
My Mum/My Father. Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong
2014
Hide. Soy Sauce Factory, Bangkok
Ren Hang. Nicolas Hugo Gallery, Paris
Anatomy of the Image. 104 Kléber Gallery, Paris
Physical Borderline. Three shadows +3 gallery, Beijing
In Addition to Sleep. Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen
In Addition to Sleep. Vasli Souza Gallery, Malmo
La Chine a Nue. Nue Gallery, Paris Pantin
Vernissage: Donnerstag, 16. Januar 2020, 18:00 (!) – 21:00 Uhr
Ausstellungsdaten: Freitag, 17. Januar – Donnerstag, 19. März 2020
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Ausstellung China Fever – Migrant Bird Space | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Ausstellungen Berlin Galerien | ART at Berlin
