Shen Wei: A Season Particular
Flowers Gallery, London
5 May - 3 June 2023
Untitled, 2020
Chromogenic print
© Shen Wei, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
Celosie 9909, 2021
Chromogenic print
© Shen Wei, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
Flowers Gallery presents A Season Particular, a solo exhibition by New York-based Chinese-American artist SHEN WEI. This exhibition of sensuous photographs explores notions of gender, form and desire, reflecting a practice which Shen Wei describes as “finding the spiritual and abstract similarities between our bodies and nature and emphasising the harmony, fragility, and interconnectedness of both.” In this exhibition, closely cropped figurative forms are interspersed with images of plants and blossoms, evoking a dreamlike sense of contemplation and calm.
According to Shen Wei:
“The unique beauty and interplay between the human body and nature aim to elicit a sense of awe, wonder, and appreciation for the world around us, as well as a way to explore more profound spiritual and philosophical questions about the nature of existence and the purpose of life."
SHEN WEI
Born in 1977 and raised in Shanghai, Shen Wei is based in New York City. He is known for his intimate portraits of himself and others, as well as his poetic landscapes and still-life photography. His work has been exhibited internationally, with venues including the Museum of the City of New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, China, the Hasselblad Foundation in Göteborg, Sweden, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, CNN, Aperture, ARTnews, Paris Review, Financial Times, Le Figaro, and American Photo. Shen Wei’s work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Library of Congress, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Museum of Chinese in America, CAFA Art Museum, and the Ringling Museum of Art, among others. Shen Wei is a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Arts Residency, the Asian Cultural Council Arts & Religion Fellowship, the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Arts Grant. He holds an MFA in photography, video, and related media from the School of Visual Arts, New York, and a BFA in photography from Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Related post on Wanafoto: Shen Wei: Self @ Flowers Gallery, Hong Kong, 2021
FLOWERS GALLERY
82 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DP
