American Photo Image of the Year 2008

© Steven Meisel won the Commercial Work category.
How can you go wrong with Madonna?

Just received American Photo magazine Image of the Year 2008 issue. I was surprised to see my work won Honorable Mention in the Personal Work category. This is the second time I have been included in this category (last time was in 2006 for my portraits from Almost Naked). This year, I send in some work from my on-going project Chinese Sentiment.

A nice spark in a cold and rainy weekend.

Bare at Michael Mazzeo Gallery

Hyrand, 2005 © Shen Wei

I am so pleased to be included in this very seductive exhibition with a group of extraordinary photographers. The reception will be held at the gallery on Thursday, December 11, from 6PM to 8PM. Hope to see you there.

MICHAEL MAZZEO GALLERY

DECEMBER 11 - JANUARY 24
BARE
Curated by
JÖRG M. COLBERG
Featuring Artist:
Amy Elkins, Rachael Dunville, Ethan Aaro Jones, Richard Learoyd,
Jennifer Loeber, Hellen van Meene, Josh Quigley, Richard Renaldi,
Jessica Roberts, Alec Soth, Shen Wei, and Carmen Winant

PDN30 on Kodak Jumbotron Time Square

Kodak is presenting a program on their Time Square Jumbotron - The New Faces of Photography: 2008 Photo District News Photographers. The program will be run through November 10th.

I went over to Time Square late this afternoon and it was quite surreal for me to look at my work showing in the middle of the Time Square. The program started with the title and the alphabetical list of the name of the 2008 PDN 30 photographers. The motion graphic of the presentation was very clean and impressive, it displays 4 photographs per each photographer which you can see from the video below. If you walk by Time Square in the next 2 and a half weeks, please check it out! I have made a video on my camera showing below, you can also see the situation shots here.

Chinese Sentiment Updated.

I have updated my website and added some new work from China.  Please check it out and comments are more than welcome.

Sunset in Taiyuan.

© Shen Wei

A new photo from China.

Pingyao Photo Festival 2008

Chinese Sentiment @ Eyes on China Exhibition

The night before the opening at Diesel Engine Factory

Almost Naked @ Kunst.Licht

The Pingyao International Photography Festival (PIP) started on September 19th. The exhibitions are located in the walled Pingyao old town. The old town looks very authentic with a funny little city outside. The locals are extremely friendly, they offer me some of the best noodles. It is very crowd here and everyone seems to carry a fancy camera with them. It was exciting to look through the endless exhibitions and meeting all the friends from all over the world, people who I knew and people I have linked through various situation.

I have work show in two different location this year. My Shanghai gallery Kunst.Licht has a gallery space in Cotton Factory where the rough constructed hotel-like spaces are temporary converted to galleries. Some of my Almost Naked work are displayed here. In another location – Diesel Engine Factory, one of my favorite exhibition space in Pingyao, was transformed from abandoned factories. There are giant machines still standing in the space, the floor is sandy, the entire interior becomes a very dramatic contrast to the contemporary photography. Four images from my on-going series Chinese Sentiment are showing in a group show titled Eyes on China, curated by Ren Yue, a Chinese photo critic, writer and educator .

It is hard to concentrate on exhibitions in Pingyao. I only had three days, so I was constantly running between exhibitions, touring and gathering (a.k.a. piles of dishes, handmade moon-cake and local beer). I believe I only visited a small portion of the festival so far but had quite a few great moments of discovering some of my favorite photographers among this craziness. Most international photographers are showing at the Warehouse area which I did not have enough time to go.

Update: The Pingyao Photo Festival committee anounced today that I am one of the winners of the Excellent International Photographer Award (评委推荐奖).

Almost Naked Exhibition

My solo exhibition Almost Naked had opened at Kunst Licht Gallery in Shanghai on September 13, 2008. Twenty images from the series are on display as well as a slide show of complete series. Special thanks to Sven, Lin Yun and Sabrine’s hard work to make it happen. The gallery is located in a French Concession old house, I especially liked the poster of Yemi and James peeping from the street front windows. Attached is some installation of the exhibition.

I am now at the city of Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province in central China, well known for its mining business. It is about one hour and a half from Pingyao where the photo festival will be.

Solo Exhibition in Shanghai.

I am very pleased to announce my first solo exhibition in China will be open on September 13, 2008 at 3pm at Kunst.Licht Gallery in Shanghai. The exhibition will run through November 30th. If you happen to be in Shanghai, please check out the show.

Writing on Almost Naked

A few months ago, I got contacted by writer Marc Nieson for getting permission to write some of my portraits from Almost Naked, creatively not critically. Marc Nieson is a novelist and a screenwriter who won Special Jury Prize at the 2007 Venice Film Festival for his screenplay The Speed of Life, he also teaches at Chatham University for the MFA Creative Writing.

The writing on my work is initially commissioned by Silver Eye Center for Photography and Sherrie Flick as part of their "Point of View" programming. Here is two pieces of wonderful writing on two of my portraits. I am truly honored and love the pieces. It is refreshing to read stories of the pictures I have made, they stirs my memory a little bit.

The Pomegranate

So, what should I say?

One day even this will embarrass you, no
doubt. My dress, thick as drawing room
curtains yet just as revealing, your school
uniform with its creases of confusion. All like
some tapestry. Some tableau.

Perhaps Hamlet said it best — words, words,
words. Sumptuous, forbidden, divulge,
indulge. I’ll spare you the seasons of details.
Mostly, it’s not what you think. Let alone what
you’d ask. Of your father, you already know. At
least what’s felt necessary. Perhaps I’ve been
wrong to say so little. Certainly it’s ripe for that
talk too, but not today. All in due moments, I
promise.

The world is often halved. Our eyes typically
reveal less than our gestures. It’s all a pose. A
drama. Take note of the frame.

What else? Yes, take a big bite.There are many
seeds.

Room Service

That’s all I really wanted. Someplace warm for
the night. A room with a number, and tiny
mints on each pillow. Bible in the drawer.
Doesn’t seem so much to ask for, at least
tonight. Or that shoe store up the block with
the $10 sale. They’ll open at noon.

Outside it’s raining, not that you can tell. High
school was so easy, eight periods a day. Now
I’m between beds with this ocean in my head.
Still feeling kind of queasy. Footsteps next
door. They make it all sound so simple.
Directions you can follow written on the wall.
Do not disturb. Leave the towels on the floor.
In case of emergency, head for the stairs.

And in the morning it’s the maids who’ll come
knocking. They’ll clean up your mess, then roll
down the hall. I won’t speak their language,
won’t know from where they came. Maybe
they’ve got infants at home, maybe not. Maybe
I won’t go to hell.

-Marc Nieson

2-person show at Randall Scott Gallery

Lori, 2008. © Shen Wei

Part of Randall Scott Gallery's summer exhibition series Eight, the 2-person show of Alexandra Catiere and I will start on August 9th and runs through August 22nd. If you are in the area, please check out the exhibitions.

HIJACKED: Book Launch and Photo Exhibition

This Friday, June 6, from 7pm to 11pm is the book launch photo exhibition of HIJACKED: VOLUME ONE, AUSTRALIA AND AMERICA (Big City Press) at The Arm (281 N. 7th St., Brooklyn, NY). The book is included 44 photographers and is a survey of contemporary photography in both The United States and Australia. Some of my work is included in the book and I will definitely be there and hope to see some familiar faces, too.

Here is the list of the photographers:

(American - 20 Photographers)

Timothy Archibald | Angela Boatwright | Alana Celii | Nick Chatfield-Taylor | Brian Cross | Todd Fisher | Jonathan Gitelson | Dean Karr | Lisa Kereszi | Jason Lazarus | Suzy Poling | Robin Schwartz | Tod Seelie | Sarah Small | Amy Stein | Jennifer Juniper Stratford | Bill Sullivan | Shen Wei | Grant Willing | Ed Zipco

(Australian - 24 Photographers)

Greta Anderson | Duncan Barnes | Karron Bridges | Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy | Michael Gray | David Griggs | Caitlin Harrison | Nathalie Latham | Mark McPherson | James Mellon | Graham Miller | Martin Mischkulnig | Fiona Morris | Tony Nathan | Jack Pam | Emily Portmann | Brad Rimmer | Janelle Ryan | Flavia Schuster | Juha Tolonen | Joshua Webb | Toni Wilkinson | Gareth Willis

The exhibition and book launch will also be held in Germany and Australia.

Other, Other...

© InJoo Whang

I have received a 2008 New York City/Urban Artist Initiative Fellowship and will be included in OTHER, OTHER... an exhibition features works by 18 artists and represent a sampling of 2007 and 2008 UAI/NYC recipients visual arts and media. The exhibition will be open on June 4, 2008 and will be view through August 7th at Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos.

PDN 30 & WPA Auction

I am very honored to be included in the PDN’s "30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch” list this year with a group of very talent young photographers. The magazine is out now. I can’t wait to see the issue. There will be a panel discussion in conjunction with the publication of the list on March 10th from 6:30-9 at Parsons featuring 4 of the 30 photographers, Amy Lundeen, Photo Editor at Budget Travel and Fiona McDonagh, Photo Director at Entertainment Weekly.

© Arthur Tress

This Friday the Washington Project for the Arts is holding it's 2008 Art Auction Gala at the Katzen Art Center. One of my portraits from Almost Naked was selected by Sarah Kennel, the Assistant Photography Curator at National Gallery of Art to be included in the auction. Some of my favorite photographers such as Arthur Tress, Duane Michals, Zoe Strauss and Amy Stein are also part of this auction. If you can't go to D.C., you can still bid online.

And, I just updated my website!

February Publications

Chinese Photography February Issue

La Tempestad Issue 55

I am featured in two foreign art magazines this month. The Chinese Photography magazine is the most professional and widely distributed photography publications in China. The February issue featured a nine-page portfolio of Almost Naked, an article by Jörg M. Colberg and an interview with Ren Yue.

The issue 58 (January/February) of La Tempestad has also included an artist feature of my work. This glossy Mexico-based art magazine styles its delightfully literary and its format have a remarkably quality. You can find their fabulous back issues here.

Also, click here you can read an article about a current exhibition entitled Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win: Emerging Artists from the Chinese Diaspora, which is included several photographs of mine.

Grandma's Mugshot...Sort of.

This is a photograph of my grandmother and a policeman. The photo was taken in January, 1947, she was 26 years old.

A few days ago, my mother was watching a TV series at home in Shanghai. The series is called "Unclosed Case of China" which is about all the famously unfinished law-related cases in the Republic of China era (1912-1949). When the show starts talk about a fire case that was happened in the Chinese New Year of 1947, that a lane of houses in downtown Shanghai was on fire, one of them was the house of my grandparents'. The firemen was failed to save most houses. This case later turned into a long and complicated investigation on the cause of the incident. Of course, the result of that investigation remain a mystery.

So, mom was already extremely surprised and excited about this blurry family history unfolding on TV. But not until they showed this above image with a caption of "Wife of the Tongzuo Factory owner Shen Qiuling (my grandpa)", she was totally stunned. Nobody had ever seen this photo, not even my grandma herself, it was digged from the old record for this documentary. According to the decumentary, my grandma was the first person who noticed the fire and call the fire department immediately. Later, after she gave a statement to the police department, Well, I guess she was a hero so they need to take a photo with her. And here it is, after 60 years, this photographs surfaced with so much memories and history. Isn't it just amazing!

She is now 87 years old and rarely mentioned the fire. She doesn't seem to remember the picture moment very clearly, but she sure saved the many lives, I am kind of a little bit speechless...

You can see the entire documentary (in Chinese) here.
PS: She is totally a fashionista, look at that cool coat and the hair!

2008 Manhattan Community Arts Grant

Almost Naked has been awarded a 2008 Manhattan Community Arts grant. This is my second year of winning this grant. Last year, I received this grant award for my series Concubines of New York, a documentary project of Chinese opera in New York City. The grant helped me tremendously on creating and post-production of the project, Concubines of New York has already been collected and published in China. Manhattan Community Arts grant is funded by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and New York City department of Cultural Affairs. The 2009 application for this grant is due Jan. 22, 2008.