The planning and implementation of this project are rather unique and the exhibition is curated in a way that, we hope, can best represent the ideas of the artist. In this exhibition, we have picked a mixture of texts consisting of test strips, samples, defective pictures and other pictures that Han Lei took in the 1980s and 1990s, some of which were from the same negative films but developed on different photographic papers at different times in his darkroom. The show also includes a number of positive films and “finished products”, which constitute a consistent body of works that demonstrate his various ways of working and small changes in his attitudes towards the concepts of objectivity and reality.The clear-cut structure of the exhibition doesnʼt mean that Han Lei would like to show his thinking and practice in an orderly and absolute manner. On the contrary, Han candidly reveals to viewers his confusions, doubts and conflicts.
Born in 1967 in Kaifeng, Han Lei graduated from the Central Academy of Craft and Design, Beijing in 1989. Han Lei has been at the forefront of art photography in China for nearly 20 years, producing works in a variety of genres and artistic mediums and consistently exploring and experimenting with both the ordinary and the absurd. He was one of the early contemporary artists in China to make a name for himself with a camera, and his work has been shown worldwide at prestigious venues including the Kwangju Museum of Art (2007), the Guangzhou Museum of Art (2005) Lianzhou Photography Festival (2006, 2007), Guangzhou Photography Biennial (2005), Rome Photography Festival (2003, 2004, 2005), Prague International Museum (2003), as well as Pingyao Photography Festival (2001), and he has had numerous solo exhibitions in galleries in Europe, Asia and the US.
Han Leiʼs Portraits often focus on the quintessential. Seemingly unconventional subjects become superlative embodiments of deeper social or psychological motifs.
Curated by Tang Xin
Exhibition presented by Taikang Space
