Interior Portraits - Wang Gang's solo exhibition


2009.07.18 - 09.18
Venue: beaugeste shanghai
210 taikang road building 5 space 519-520
sh 200025 - www.beaugeste-gallery.com
site under construction
tel: +86-21-64669012

After winning a prize at the World Press Photo with his B&W Yi Shepherd, Wang Gang discovered the concept of chiaroscuro in classical painting and the works of American realist painter Thomas Eakins (1844-1916). He decided to study color photography, to achieve what he calls the balance between the subject and the background, between light and darkness. A daunting task indeed since natural light is usually minimal inside the dark and depleted interiors of the Yi and the Tibetan rural people. From his trips in Sichuan , Qinghai and Lhassa he came back with an impressive harvest of “interior” portraits that magnify the details of the accoutrements or of the faces in a generally dark and somber background.

Obviously the pose is carefully chosen and the background and home objects that go into the frames too. We are here far from clichés and stereotypes. Wang Gang has achieved a unique style thanks to his own imagination and his literary and philosophical culture, conveying to us viewers the emotion that emanates from these Yi and Zang faces, realizing here the process of “illumination through illustration”.