The fifth edition of PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai announces an ambitious and innovative programming. Classic masterpieces will be shown alongside contemporary works combining photography with art, sculpture, installation and video, in addition to VIP visits and lively talks featuring artist profiles and discussions on topics around photography and the art market.
In only a few years, PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai has seen a constantly growing audience attending the fair, which attests an increasing appetite for photography in China. Such burgeoning of interest is also telling. In fact since the first edition of the fair in 2014, several photography museums have opened – amongst them the Lianzhou Museum of Photography [Learn more here] – and over seventy exhibitions have taken place across China.
Undoubtedly PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai is one of the key partakers that have been able to push tastes forward for the medium, while significantly supporting the rather new but promising photography art market in China. We should remember that its unique platform allowed a fair number of Chinese works to enter permanent collections of key international museums: the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) to name just one example.
This 2018 instalment offers a balance between leading international and Chinese galleries. For instance ShanghART Gallery and Three Shadows + 3 Gallery - which have both participated in every PHOTOFAIRS edition - will showcase diverse Chinese talent including Birdhead, Wenhuan Shao, Chen Wei, Kechun Zhang and Renhui Zhao. Chinese artists Hai Bo and Hong Hao will be showcased by Pace Gallery and new work from Jiang Zhi’s Fade series will be presented by Blindspot Gallery alongside Jiang Pengyi.
The chief goal of the fair is to promote artists and works that are beyond a ‘picture hanging on a wall’. This is why an entire sector is dedicated to works exploring the relationship between photography and other art forms such as sculpture, installation, art, video and painting. It also includes lots of large scale works and moving image presentations, such as Cai Dong Dong’s large scale installation, SeungWoo Back’s installation in two parts at the fair entrance, and Yang Yongliang’s latest 4K video work.
Following its mission to present cutting-edge exhibitions, this year spotlight is dedicated to the Japanese artist and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto. Since the 1970s, his works have been dealing with history and temporal existence by investigating themes of time, empiricism, and metaphysics. The spotlight's main objective is to highlight an artist of international renown who is of particular relevance and importance to the contemporary photography space and market at the time of the fair.
For those who are in Shanghai in mid-September, don’t miss the following events:September 20th，2pm-7pm：COLLECTOR PREVIEWSeptember 21th，12pm-6pm VIP PREVIEW, 6pm-9pm VERNISSAGESeptember 22-23th，11pm-6pm: PUBLIC OPENING
More information:PHOTOFAIRS | ShanghaiFrom September 21-23, 2018Shanghai Exhibition CenterNo. 655 Changhua RoadJing'an District, Shanghaiwww.photofairs.org
