Shen Wei (photographer)

Recognition

Shen's work has been exhibited and published internationally. His work is included in the permanent collections of MoMA, Getty Museum, and Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others. He has received fellowships from New York Foundation for the Arts and Asian Cultural Council. He had participated residency programs at Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Bellagio, Italy and Light Work in Syracuse, NY. In 2007, American Photo magazine named Wei one of the Top 15 Emerging Artists in the world. In 2008, he was included in the Photo District News’ 30 photographers to watch list. Wei is the winner of 2012 Philadelphia Museum of Art Photography Portfolio Competition.

Education

Shen studied graphic design at Shanghai Light Industry College. Upon arrival in the US, He continued his study at Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) where he discovered photography through a course about Diane Arbus. After receiving a Bachelor in Fine Arts (Photography) from MCAD, he moved to New York City for his Masters in Fine Arts study in photography, video and related media at the School of Visual Arts from which he graduated in 2006.

Projects

Shen's first major project Almost Naked is a series of intimate and intense portraits of people whom he met in New York City and during his travels around the US. Most of his sitters were strangers to him. The project explores sexuality and identity and is a reaction to Shen's strict and conservative upbringing.

Shen's Chinese Sentiment series was photographed from 2008 to 2010 in Mainland China. The series is the artist’s personal journey to explore the authentic China, from both public and private perspectives. The series shows a poetic and romantic side of China. Consistent with Shen's sensual and emotional style, the images are loving and keenly felt. Shen's first monograph, Chinese Sentiment, with an introduction by Peter Hessler, was published by Charles Lane Press (New York) in May 2011.

Shen started his series I Miss You Already during his Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center residency in Italy in 2009. The self-portrait series reveals his processes of self-reflection and discovery. In this series, the artist appears nude or semi-nude in each photograph, often in a fairytale-like and evocative atmosphere that creates a seductive and complex ambiance. The artist describes his series as a provocative way to explore his sense of security through understanding the tension between freedom and boundaries.

During 2010-2011, Shen was commissioned by Aperture Foundation for an innovative New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene program known as Green Cart. It provides underserved communities with access to fresh fruits and vegetables via hundreds of independently owned, mobile produce stands. His project Table Setting was part of the exhibition Moveable Feast at the Museum of the City of New York in 2011. His radiant still lifes of fruits and vegetables” were highlighted in the reviews of The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal.

Shen's mixed-media series "Invisible Atlas" combines photography and drawing, is his personal visual interpretation of how energy forms around and through the objects and bodies. The series was inspired by the Chinese philosophy of Qi - an unseen life force and a method of healing.

Collections

Shen's work is held in the following public collections:

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions