Spearheading the Chinese artistic revolution with his contemporary take on photographic convention - Chen Wei represents a new generation of Chinese creative, freed from the shackles of political strife that so informed his forebears.
Producing high-colour, large-scale still life-esque photographs, Wei has taken on one of the West’s most specific and history-rooted artistic modes with eye-catching success.
Featuring a range of work produced over the span of the past two years, the exhibition at Shanghai’s M97 Gallery (Wei’s first in the city) will showcase some of the most important work from this Hangzhou and Beijing-based artist.
Infatuated with the many eccentricities of early Western medicine, alchemy and philosophy - Wei’s intricately constructed tableaux take taxidermy, melted wax, insects and a whole host of equally evocative objects as their subject.
Building intricate, abstract narratives around his chosen objects by placing them in jarring, unexpected configurations, Wei artfully plays with age old notions of symbolism and allegory – creating an eerie air of foreboding around each photograph.
Sketched out in his studio before being photographed, the still life set-ups feel both staged and incidental. Capturing an equal sense of considered stillness and creative chance, Wei’s photographs represent some of the most innovative work to be making its way out of the People’s Republic.
Records Hypnosis, 2007.
Light on the Folding Bed, 2009.
Method of Slumber.
Lesson of Weightlessness, 2009.
I Feel That Geometry Is A Difficult Subject I, 2009.
I Feel That Geometry Is A Difficult Subject III, 2009.
ADDRESS
M97 Gallery
No. 97 Moganshan Road
2nd floor
Shanghai
China 200060
-
Tokyo design studio We+ transforms microalgae into coloursCould microalgae be the sustainable pigment of the future? A Japanese research project investigates
-
What to see at London Craft Week 2025With London Craft Week just around the corner, Wallpaper* rounds up the must-see moments from this year’s programme
-
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar watch solves an age-old watchmaking problemThis new watch may be highly technical, but it is refreshingly usable
-
Henni Alftan’s paintings frame everyday moments in cinematic renditionsConcurrent exhibitions in New York and Shanghai celebrate the mesmerising mystery in Henni Alftan’s paintings
-
Cui Jie revisits past utopian architectures in her retro-futuristic cityscapesCui Jie responds to the ‘Cosmos Cinema’ theme of the Shanghai Biennale 2023
-
13th Shanghai Biennale reaches a climax at Power Station of ArtThe final phase of the 13th Shanghai Biennale culminates with a mammoth show examining our entanglement with climates, ecosystems and technologies
-
Is Beijing the next art superpower?With a boom in museums, galleries and art fairs fuelling the market, the Chinese capital is firing all creative cylinders
-
Brushed-up bronze: Design MVW present ’XiangSheng’ at Galerie BSL, Paris -
What is contemporary?: Gucci ponders big questions at Shanghai’s Minsheng -
Random International’s largest Rain Room to date takes Shanghai by storm -
The 10th Shanghai Biennale ponders a post-industrial China
