Photofairs Shanghai 2020

PHOTOFAIRS is delighted to announce the inauguration of Weekend of Photography, a programme of photography exhibitions and events in Shanghai and beyond. These include the first ever solo exhibitions in China by celebrated international artists such as William Eggleston, Nan Goldin and Alec Soth, to name a few, alongside a screening partnership with OCAT Shanghai and digital presentations and events especially curated for the Weekend. 

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This initiative was launched following the cancellation of PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai 2020 due to the current global pandemic and in an effort to continue and support the artistic community. By encouraging collectors and visitors back into galleries and museums, PHOTOFAIRS aims to contribute to the recovery of the local market and foster new and meaningful ways for artists and audiences to engage. 

In Shanghai key exhibitions on display include The Space Between Us at Shanghai Centre of Photography, the first solo exhibition in China by the acclaimed American photographer Alec Soth. The exhibition presents over 40 images from series such as Perfect Strangers, Looking for Love and Sleeping by Mississippi, taking viewers on a journey through the interior lives and creative development of the photographer and his subjects. Somewhere in the Past at AroundSpace is a group exhibition of mostly black & white works by six contemporary Chinese photographers including Ma Liang, Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao, Sui Taca, Dong Wensheng, Lu Yanpeng and Lu Yuanmin. Through landscapes, still life and street scenes the works in this exhibition engage with the past as both a physical and emotional concept.

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Other exhibitions include Bruce Nauman’s video works at Edward Ressle, the American artist’s first solo exhibition in mainland China; Convolution of the Pupil: Imagination from Classics to Data, a VR exhibition by Chinese artist Chen Baoyang at Quantum Gallery, interpreting the myths of the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing) through new technology and Enlightened Spaces by Candida Höfer at Matthew Liu Fine Arts, features the German artist’s celebrated photographs of empty public spaces, often grand cultural institutions, in which the absence of people highlights the influence and relationship between the two. Modern Studio stages Dialogues of an Introvert, the first exhibition in China of young up-and-coming Indian artist Sameer Tawde (UP Gallery, Hsinchu).

Also taking place on the 13 September is a screening event in partnership with OCAT Shanghai. Titled One Place After Another, the event features 10 new video works by Chinese and international artists including Cheng Xinhao (Tabula Rasa Gallery), Yang Yuanyuan (AIKE), Feng Bingyi (A Thousand Plateaus Art Space) and Liang Yue (ShanghART Gallery), all created in 2020 in response to political, social and cultural issues of recent months. In collaboration with PHOTOFAIRS and following the screening day, Daata, a platform for commissioning and displaying original digital artworks, will host a selection of videos for one month to be accessed by audiences and collectors from all over the world.

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Highlights beyond Shanghai include the first solo exhibition in the Greater China Region of the American master of colour photography, William Eggleston at David Zwirner (Hong Kong), presenting medium- and large-format photographs from the 1970s, many of which have never been exhibited before. The works of influential American artist Nan Goldin will also go on display for the first time in China in a solo exhibition in Light Society (Beijing), showcasing prints from her seminal series The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, The Other Side and I’ll Be Your Mirror. Golden Age: Five Masters of Japanese Photographers at Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (Beijing) showcases over 100 works by the great Nobuyoshi Araki, Daido Moriyama, Masahisa Fukase, Miyako Ishiuchi, and Eikoh Hosoe.

L.A.P. Gallery (Wuhan) presents an exhibition by Chinese photographer He Bo who works with found images of disasters to explore stories and ideas around the fictive nature of archives and memories. Other exhibitions by contemporary Chinese photographers include Damp Weather by Qiu at Mugetang Art Space (Chengdu) and I’m Everywhere by Celine Liu on display at the HOW Art Museum (Wenzhou) featuring self-constructed images which explore the artist’s fascination with the dissemination of historic and cultural narratives in mass media.

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Accompanying these exhibitions and screenings are offline and online artist talks, guided exhibition tours, photography and moving images workshops including an artist talk by Ma Liang at Alter and a Q&A with Alec Soth at SCoP. Full information about timings and locations is available via photofairs.org/weekend. Also launching that weekend is the Exposure Award online exhibition featuring the work of this year’s recipient Guanyu Xu, alongside a shortlist of rising talents, presenting experimental works that push the boundaries of photography. The exhibition is live and available to view from 11 September via photofairs.org. 

PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai will return to the Shanghai Exhibition Center in September 2021.