BANK is pleased to announce Chen Zhe‘s participation in 40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography (1976-2017) - Three Shadows 10th Anniversary Special Exhibition, featuring selected works from her first photography series The Bearables. This exhibition, opening on Jun 28th and continues through August 27th, is divided into four sections: “The Rise of Unofficial Photography (1976–1979)”, “New Wave Photography (1980-1989)”, “Experimental Photography (1990-2006)”, and “The Development of Experimental Photography Organizations (2007-present) ”. The exhibition provides a comprehensive overview of the work of important Chinese contemporary photographers from the mid 1990s on, as well as related historical material.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chen Zhe’s practice is often restored as an ongoing process of exploration, discovery, and research. In her early work where the physical self-destruction of her subjects is identified as an act of spiritual cleansing, Chen Zhe searched after the possibility of “another way of telling" by expanding her photographic observations with a collection of journals and letters.
Chen Zhe (b. 1989) is a photo-based artist born and based in Beijing, China. She received her BFA in Photography and Imaging from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles in 2011. Chen is the recipient of the Three Shadows Award (2011), Inge Morath Award from the Magnum Foundation (2011), Lianzhou Festival Photographer of the Year Award (2012) and the Xitek New Talent Award (2015). Her work has been included in public and private collections and exhibited internationally at Unseen Photo Fair, Contact Photography Festival, Fotohof Gallery and Tokyo Photo, as well as at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Minsheng Art Musuem and the Power Station of Art in China. Chen was subject of TV documentary films “Chinese Viewfinder” (2013) produced by ARTE, France and “China Through the Lens of Youth” (2014) produced by NHK, Japan. Her debut publication “Bees” was selected as one of the best books of 2012 by Photo-Eye and Feature Shoot, and her latest book “Bees & The Bearable” was awarded the Best Photobook of the Year by Kassel Fotobook festival in 2016.
