About

We are very excited to announce that during Unseen, our beloved Luo Yang will host an Artist Talk and Catalogue Signing session. And an artist talk with Julian Ross. Luo Yang was born in the 80s in Liaoning, China, currently lives in Beijing and Shanghai. As a photographer, she’s been placing her focus on women from different generations and backgrounds in contemporary China, depicting an emerging Chinese youth culture that defies imposed expectations and stereotypes. Solo shows in Paris, Berlin, Austria, Hong Kong and Bangkok have since contributed to her international recognition and she’s been widely covered by western media. She was selected as one of BBC’s “100 WOMEN” in 2018, shortlisted for C /O Berlin Talent Award in 2019, and a winner of Jimei · Arles women photographers award 2019. GIRLS Luo Yang’s main project “Girls”, has revealed a part of contemporary China that is rarely taken note of in the West. Her portraits depict an emerging Chinese youth culture that defies imposed expectations and stereotypes: “Girls” are badass and self-aware with a supreme sense of cool, yet also insecure, vulnerable and torn. Underlying tensions and ambivalent emotions lend friction to Luo’s images and deny a conclusive reading. Above all, her work is a testament to her subject’s individuality. It explores themes of youth and femininity while challenging traditional beliefs about Chinese women. “Girls” thus also reflect a shifting mindset with regard to concepts of femininity and identity in modern China. YOUTH « Ba ling hou » (born after 80): this idiom refers to the first generation born under the one-child policy and during the reform and opening up led by Deng Xiaoping after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). These are young people who grew up in a world which they were the center of, with Internet and social media, in a consumer society in total rupture with the preceding generations. Luo Yang belongs to this generation. Her portraits depict an emerging Chinese youth culture that defies imposed expectations and stereotypes. Her work is a testament to her subjects’ individuality and personality. Femininity, gender, identity: she reflects the deep changes taking place in China today.