Feng Li

Fotografiska is proud to feature the largest solo show to date of Chengdu based artist Feng Li.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Fotografiska Shanghai’s inaugural exhibition, White Nights in Wonderland invites visitors to experience the spectacle of contemporary society in all its surreal, subtle, and visceral detail as seen through the lens of Feng Li. Celebrated around the world from Paris to Tokyo, from Shanghai to his hometown of Chengdu, Feng Li cultivated a distinctive visual language that has gained him a richly-deserved international reputation in street photography and fashion. Against the backdrop of our modern cities, his colourful tableaux materialise enigmatic, fleeting instants, and capture quotidian absurdities in the bright light of a flash, blurring night and day.

Curated by the international photography specialist Holly Roussell, Feng Li: White Nights in Wonderland features nearly 200 images shot over the preceding twenty years, presenting never-previously-exhibited photographs, as well as recontextualising some of Feng Li’s most iconic works. Organised loosely chronologically, the exhibition presents in three sections: White Nights, City Express, and What is Fashion?. Each draws attention to vital moments in the artist’s development.

In a society of ubiquitous image-making, Feng Li’s work stands out for his unique capacity to relish subtle ironies and to convey the surreal truths of daily life. He revels in the spectacular aesthetic potential of colour and the most unassuming details.

— Holly Roussell, curator

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Feng Li is an artist who observes the extraordinary details from the ordinary. He uncovers the enigmatic side of reality and presents ordinary life scenes in an unusual way. Often wandering around the city, he instinctively observes people, objects and urban landscapes in an intuitive way. He directly illuminates those incredible moments with flash lights. Those scenes, sliced by flash, are eventually transformed into strange, funny, and intriguing moments frozen in time.

In recent years, Feng Li has collaborated with international fashion organizations, such as System, Re-Edition, British Vogue, SSENSE, Germany 032c, FAZ and more. In these fashion images that are usually glamorous, Feng Li’s biting wit and absurdity can still be seen.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Holly Roussell, Curator, Museologist, and Art Historian. Holly Roussell is Swiss/American from East Asia. Currently, she is curator for the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing. Previously, she served as coordinator of the worldwide traveling exhibitions program, and the Prix Elysée, for the Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, from 2013 to 2017. In 2022, she was invited guest curator for the Curiosa section for emerging artists at the leading international art fair for photography, Paris Photo, as well as research curator in residence at the MMCA, Seoul.

Roussell has organized more than 20 group and solo exhibitions for festivals, biennale, and museums around the world such as: Folkwang Museum, DE; MUCEM, Marseille, FR; Les Rencontres d’Arles, FR; Somerset House, London, UK; NGV Melbourne, AUS; Lianzhou Photography Festival, CN; Shanghai Centre of Photography, CN; Auckland Art Gallery, NZ; Fotografiska New York and Stockholm, USA/SE; MMCA: Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, SK and other venues.