Lois Conner 康兰丝 @Han Feng Art Space 韩枫艺术空间

May 19th, 2019 - Nov, 2019

Han Feng Art Space

Amanyangyun 6161 Yuanjiang Road, Minheng District, Shanghai

art@hanfeng.com

By appointment only

Lois Conner, Triangle Lotus, Zhejiang 1998

Lois Conner credits the lotus as her muse, they are a main subject in her work but also an influence on how she approaches her landscape and portrait work. In ‘Triangle Lotus’, Conner captures the lotuses in their withered state rather than in full bloom. The jagged dried stalks are reflected in the still surface of the lake creating abstract geometric forms resembling triangles. Lotuses are a symbol in traditional Chinese painting to represent ‘transitional worldly glory’. This work reflects on traditional portrayals of lotuses through its naturalism and symbolism, and even more so through the calligraphic lines created by the stems.

Lois Conner, Waterdrop Taiptych, Beijing 2004

"I never know what I will find. Each day brings thrilling discoveries as well as inevitable frustrations and disappointment. But the lotus has become my muse. And it subsequently informs how I approach other landscapes," Lois Conner said.

Lois Conner, Huangshan, Anhui 1984

Lois Conner, Shanghai News Building, Shanghai 1999

Lois Conner, The Photographers, Guangdong 1993

Lois Conner began her artistic journey in China in 1984, in the very early years post Deng Xiaoping’s opening and economic reforms. She left her career at the United Nations in New York and set out to explore the mountains and Chinese landscapes of Guangxi province using her signature 7x17” panoramic-style camera. Likening the elongated format of her black and white compositions to Chinese classical scroll painting, Conner focused her lens on the ancient mountains of Guilin and the surrounding landscapes. Lois Conner’s is a born traveler and adventurer, and an obsessive collector and observer of the landscape, attempting “to twist what the camera faithfully describes into something of fiction”. She is a graduate of Yale University’s prestigious Photography MFA program and continues to print her works in both the exquisite plantium-palladium process as well large-format pigment printing.

Amanyangyun