No.223 (Lin Zhipeng)

Two decades of visual diaries, over a hundred works, capturing the hidden dialogues between desire, body, and the everyday.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

On March 13, 2026, Fotografiska Shanghai and Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre jointly present the solo exhibition Under the Sunlight, There is No True Intimacy by No.223 (Lin Zhipeng), a representative figure in contemporary Chinese image-making. This exhibition, curated by Teng Qingyun and Li Zijian, marks the artist's first Shanghai tour following his presentation at Three Shadows Xiamen, systematically tracing his photographic practice spanning two decades through over a hundred works, and initiating a profound dialogue on intimate experience, visual resistance, and bodily narrative.

The exhibition title, Under the Sunlight, There is No True Intimacy, stems from No.223's enduring creative philosophy – beneath the seemingly ordinary surface of daily life lies another layer of real topography constructed by the body, desire, and emotion. His lens acts as a calm yet poetic observer, wandering through urban corners, natural fragments, and private scenes, capturing those easily overlooked, flickering, and unclassifiable moments of life. In contemporary visual culture, desire has always functioned as an ambiguous force of resistance, navigating the tension between social discipline and individual liberation. This exhibition unfolds around this very notion, exploring how desire becomes a subversive form of everyday practice.

With a sustained and evocative visual language, the artist records the clandestine yet powerful dialogues between body, nature, and objects, sketching an intermediate zone of fluid boundaries. Here, the distinctions between public and private, purity and taboo, nature and culture become blurred. Desire points towards the unattainable, and it is precisely the pursuit of this "impossible" that allows anxiety and exhilaration, pain and beauty, to coexist.

“No.223's practice has always occupied an 'intermediate state' – maintaining tension between public and private, documentation and fiction, restraint and release. His images are not answers, but questions: How do we preserve intimate freedom within a disciplined society? And how, through looking, can we reach reconciliation with others and with ourselves?”

No.223 is more than an artist's alias - it is a creative stance: a refusal to be defined by a single identity, insisting on dual expression through both image and text. In an era where social media chases instant stimulation, his work, with its subtle endurance, reawakens the viewer's perception of their own experience.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Lin Zhipeng, also known as No. 223, was born in 1979 in Shantou, Guangdong, and is currently based in Beijing. Lin is a photographer, writer, and independent publisher. As a calm observer of the multiple identities and transitions in life, he captures people, places, and experiences through his work, documenting everything from fleeting moments to the complexities of life, forms, and growth.

Lin’s work has been exhibited at numerous art fairs and museums worldwide, including Unseen Amsterdam, Paris Photo Fair, Photo Basel, Copenhagen Photo Festival, Planches Contact Photo Festival, as well as prestigious venues such as the ICP New York, MEP Paris, Art Gallery of Western Australia, and Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at galleries including The Delaware Contemporary (USA), Canton-Sardine Gallery (Vancouver), Akio Nagasawa Gallery (Tokyo), The Walther Collection (Ulm), In Between (Paris), Galerie Kitsuné (New York), Stieglitz19 (Antwerp), Migrant Bird Gallery (Berlin), and Glenda Cinquegrana (Milan), Three Shadows (Beijing/Xiamen), M97 Gallery (Shanghai), de Sarthe Gallery (Beijing), . Lin Zhipeng has been featured in documentaries by ARTE France "La Chine Dans L’objectif " and NHK Japan "China Through the Lens of Youth".

As part of his art, Lin has published photography books in China, France, Canada, Japan and Italy. His book No. 223 was named one of the best photography books of 2012 by PHOTOEYE, and Sour Strawberries was named one of the best photography books of 2018 by El Pais (Spain). latest publications include the 20th-anniversary conceptual photography book "La Liberté ou L’Amour" published in Norway and Amour Défendu published in Japan. A new book “Skinny Wave” will be published.

ABOUT THREE SHADOWS PHOTOGRAPHY ART CENTRE

Three Shadows Photography Art Centre is the first non-governmental institution in China dedicated to contemporary photographic art. It was jointly founded in June 2007 by influential Chinese contemporary photographer RongRong and celebrated Japanese photographer inri, Three Shadows has become the country's premier platform for the presentation, promotion, discovery and international exchange of high-caliber photography.

Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre covers an area of over 3,600 square meters, including exhibition spaces, an digital printing centre, a library, an education department, an art shop, and a café. Three Shadows Xiamen hosts more than 20 contemporary art exhibitions annually, along with weekly art courses, workshops, screenings, lectures, and forums. To date, it has presented nearly 100 exhibitions featuring works by over 500 artists worldwide, including Joel Meyerowitz, Daido Moriyama, Shoji Ueda, Robert Frank, Alec Soth, and others, attracting 500,000 visitors in total.

Since 2015, Three Shadows and the Rencontres d'Arles have co-founded the annual "Jimei ×Arles International Photo Festival" in Xiamen, China.

With Special Thanks: NIPPON PAINT CHINA

The wall coatings for this exhibition were provided by Nippon Paint China. Since entering the Chinese market in 1992, Nippon Paint China has been committed to its corporate mission of "Refreshing wonderful living space." Through continuous exploration and innovation, the company has developed a wide range of colors, products, and services tailored to the needs of the Chinese market and consumers, helping to bring the public’s vision of a better life to life.