Exposure: Recent Chinese Photography from the Smart Museum Collection

December 22, 2001 – March 24, 2002

Experimental art from mainland China has become recognized as an especially vibrant area of contemporary art, one that the Smart Museum has supported through acquisitions as well as exhibitions. The four artists presented in Exposure —Qiu Zhijie, Rong Rong, Song Dong, and Wang Wei—were born during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and matured as artists during a time of rapid change in China.

They use photography as well as other means to document, explore, and represent carried responses to China's contemporary culture. Like their peers around the world, they make photography an integral part of their practices and make dramatic use of new technologies to create large-scale prints, glowing transparencies, and photo-based installations. They exploit the camera's ability to capture fleeting moments, spaces, or performative actions so that traces remain visible to others. This was the second in a series of exhibitions highlighting recent photography acquisitions; it offered a counterpoint to the museum's presentation of The Art of Mu Xin.