The Other Wave: Contemporary Chinese Photography
Ben Brown Fine Arts is thrilled to announcethe gallery's first exhibition of works by contemporary Chinese photographers Chen Wei, Cheng Ran, Jiang Pengyi and Ye Linghan. Curated by William Zhao, The Other Wave synthesizes various styles and trends of photography and video art. It is nothing new to talk of the extraordinary social, economic and cultural transformations that took place in China in the last decades of the twentieth century. In the West we have watched the fascinating ramifications of these developments in the arena of contemporary art. Photography and video art have proven themselves to be very much part of this story, both visually representing change and acting as agents of development.
In the 1980s in China the term 'The New Wave' was coined to describe an avant-garde art movement in which documentary photography played a central role. Some thirty years later, contemporary art in China is more dominated by photography and video art than ever, and yet it is an art form that is relatively slow to garner official recognition. In the wake of the high profile of contemporary Chinese painters, who shattered auction results in recent years, there is another generation emerging from China, with a voice demanding to be heard.
