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ADOU LEAVES OF GRASS – M97 GALLERY

24 January – 15 March 2015

Artist Reception: Saturday January 24th, 4-6PM

M97 GALLERY:97 Moganshan Road 2nd Floor, Shanghai

M97 GALLERY is pleased to present “Leaves of Grass”, an exhibition of black-and-white gelatin silver Print s by Chengdu-based photographer Adou. This is Adou’s second solo exhibition at M97 Gallery. There will be a reception for the artist on Saturday January 24th from 4-6PM.

In this new body of works, Adou invites the viewer to look at their feet and become reacquainted with nature. Like the eponymous poetry collection by Walt Whitman, Adou’s “Leaves of Grass” is an exaltation of the natural world and its interrelationship with humans. In close-up range and viewed from above, isolated from an invisible wider context, the natural elements carefully composed by Adou appear graphic, geometric, almost abstract.

Adou’s photographs encourage the viewer to slow down their pace and gaze for a moment at the unexpected beauty growing from the mud. Disappointed by present-day society, and the rapid changes it encounters, the artist offers another possible path: a return to our roots, to the origins of life, and the power of nature.

Rather than a seeming departure from previous themes in the Adou’s work, “Leaves of Grass” reflects a gradual evolution in artist’s focus away from the human subject with respect to his two previous main bodies of work: “Samalada” (2006), the series of portraits of the Yi minority from Sichuan’s Daliang Mountain region, and “Adou” (2011), his collection of nude self-portraits in the expanse of remote landscapes.

A 100-page, newly published book of the “Leaves of Grass” series of photographs will be available for sale during the exhibition. Adou will be signing copies before the opening reception on January 24th.

ADOU (b. 1973, Mianyang, Sichuan Province) graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Sichuan Aba Normal College in 1995. He is the recipient of several important photography awards, including among others the Three Shadows Photography Award (2009) and the Japan MIO International Young Photographers Competition for his series “Public Buses & Chinese People” (2005). In 2007 Adou received an Honorable Mention at the World’s 100 Young Photographers KLM Paul Huf Award in the Netherlands.

Adou’s photographs have been shown throughout Asia, Europe and the United States, including two major solo exhibitions in New York and San Francisco (2009) and a Retrospective Exhibition in Kyoto (2007).

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