M97 is pleased to present the second solo exhibition of works by artist Hangzhou-based artist Shan Feiming (b.1978), "Climbing Trees in Search of Fish" (缘木求鱼）. The exhibition presents works spanning nearly ten years of the Hangzhou based artist's career — including works from his acclaimed series, Waking from Hibernation, as well as never before exhibited work drawn from the artist's photographic archive. An experimental sound installation from his 2008 series entitled, Tree Hollow and one of his newest works Love, will also be shown in China for the first time.

Shan Feiming was born in Zhejiang province in 1978 and is a graduate of the Beijing Central Academy of Fine Art and Brunswick Art Institute in Germany. Shan originally studied Chinese ink painting at the Beijing Central Academy in high school and later graduated from the Chinese painting department as an undergraduate student. Amongst other artists, Shan was particularly influenced by the photographs of German film director Wim Wenders. In 2014, he received The New Generation award for his Waking from Hibernation series in the annual Modern Weekly Photography Awards in China. He currently lives and works in Hangzhou. Shan Feiming’s work was exhibited for the first time outside of China at the Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany, in 2015 and has been featured in a number of important group and solo shows in China and abroad.

 

Shan Feiming approaches photography from a highly personal perspective. Similar to traditional painting, where symbolism reigns, he scans the natural world to find the forms that can properly express his feelings and emotions - using these trees, walls and animals as a metaphor for life and the artist’s inner emotional landscape. Through Shan Feiming’s photography, we are invited to look closely and see something more profound in nature. In particular, it is attention to the often overlooked, and an ability to put before us small, seemingly minute elements of chaos that define his work. From his first series shot with a 4 x 5 camera, Loris 倭蜂猴, to different bodies of work such as Waking from Hibernation 惊蛰之四, Tree Hollow 树洞 , and Rubber Trees 橡胶树, which use trees as symbols for his emotional state and musings, to his most recent work, Love 爱情, the exhibition gives a greater understanding of this rising Chinese photographer’s artistic practice and the evolution of his visual poetry from 2008-2018.