Han Lei - Pictures, Art, Photography

Han Lei


Background Information about Han Lei

Introduction

The overwhelming mood in Han Lei’s work is nostalgia. In nostalgia Han Lei finds timelessness. He loves images that freeze mobility, images that become immutable and lasting representatives. He presents us with the typical misty Chinese mountain we imagine from our knowledge of classical paintings, he seeks out the beautiful female profile we seem to remember from old photographs. While the camera is a most democratic instrument, equitable in granting significance to any living moment, Han Lei has used this instrument to create a hierarchy of types. He is interested in images that can be greater, more permanent and more typical than other images of their class. With these images Han constructs a world that bring alive an order and an aesthetic that is both familiar and distant in time.
 
Chang Tsong-zung

Bio

1967Born in Keifeng, Hennan province, china
1989Graduated from Central Academy of Craft and Design, Beijing, China
works and lives in Beijing, China

Exhibitions

2005Portraits, galerie polaris, Paris, France
Killing legend, 798 photo Gallery, Beijing, China
2004Han Lei photographs, art scene china, Shanghai, China
2003Strange, aura gallery, Shanghai, China
2001Fictional landscape, Beijing, China
1997Alienation, Hippolyte gallery, Helsinki, Finland
Podwell gallery, Berlin, Germany
 2005Viewing the city, Guangzhou Photo Biennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, China
 2004Forbidden City international photography exhibition, Beijing,China
Intersection: contemporary oil painting and photography, chambers fine art, New York, U.S.A.
 2003From China: contemporary Chinese photography, gallery image,Denmark
A strange heaven: contemporary Chinese photography, the nationalart museum, Prague, Czech Republic
Tempo di donne, sala gatti, Viterbo, Italy
Rome photography festival, Rome, Italy
 2002Dialogue: beautiful and tragic, two Spanish photographers and two Chinese photographers, capital museum, Beijing, China
Golden harvest: Chinese contemporary art, Croatia national museum, Croatia
Facing reality:Photographs of Han Lei, Wang Shilong and Zhang Hai’er, China art archives & warehouse, Beijing, China
20011:1? The 3rd Ping Yao international photography festival, Ping Yao,China
Disorientation: photography and video in China today, chambers fine art, New York, U.S.A.
2000Cities of the 21st century: Siemens cultural program, Frankfurt, Germany; New York, U.S.A.
1999A visible spirit: contemporary photography from the People’s Republic of China, Cypress college photography galleries, California, U.S.A.
1998Railways and people: the 1998 Mother Jones international fund for documentary photography awards, art center and studio gallery, San Francisco, U.S.A. 
1996China: aktuelles aus 15 ateliers, Reithalle, Munich, Germany
1995International art festival of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
1994Contemporary photography from Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Hong Kong arts centre, Hong Kong, China
1993The 6th rodez photofolies festival, Aveyron, France