London, July 25, 2017: PHOTOFAIRS, international art fairs dedicated to photography, today announces two exciting new exhibitions for its fourth Shanghai fair – Spotlight and Insights.

A cornerstone of PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai’s ambitious public programming, the two exhibitions demonstrate the fair’s commitment to presenting cutting-edge curatorial displays of contemporary art alongside the fair’s commercial stands.

Internationally renowned Chinese photographer and poet Ren Hang is the subject for the inaugural Spotlight exhibition, the first major presentation of the artist’s work in China since his death. The influence of color on fine art photography will be traced by Insights: A Colour Explosion: The Rise of Contemporary Photography, a curated exhibition of museum quality pieces for private sale.

PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai opens to collectors at the Shanghai Exhibition Center on Thursday 7 September and runs until September 10, 2017. Supported by Presenting Partner Porsche, PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai is Asia Pacific’s most authoritative platform on contemporary photography, and mainland China’s most international art fair.

Spotlight: 19 Photographs – Celebrating the work of Ren Hang through a new canon. A new initiative for 2017, Spotlight will annually highlight an artist of particular relevance and importance to the contemporary photography space and market at the time of the fair. No artist is currently more deserving of this recognition than the late Chinese photographer Ren Hang.

Equally celebrated and censored throughout his short career, Ren Hang is widely regarded as one of the key influencers and leaders of the new generation of contemporary Chinese photography. The artist died in February 2017 aged 29, leaving behind an extraordinary body of work primarily focusing on the poetics and abstractions inherent to the human body.

In collaboration with Beijing’s KWM artcenter, PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai will present 19 Photographs, an exhibition featuring 19 images from Ren Hang’s last exhibition before his death, Beauty without Beards. Originally shown at the KWM artcenter in February 2017, all the images within the exhibition were the last to have been authenticated by the artist and following the artist’s death, they will never be printed again. They are on show in an international forum in China for the first time since Hang’s passing.

Since his death, a reassessment of Hang’s work has begun, avoiding the sexual-political framework within which the artist was often contextualized during his life. Through research of Hang’s interviews and a closer inspection of his life, 19 Photographs has been curated to encourage the viewer to consider new readings of the work focusing on its aesthetic qualities and historical context.

Insights: Tracing the history of color in fine art photography For the 2017 Insights exhibition, PHOTOFAIRS’ Artistic Director Alexander Montague-Sparey looked to the mid-1970s and the moment at which the art world started to view photography as an artistic medium, partially due to the increased use of color.

Beginning with the experimental dye-transfer prints of William Eggleston (CAMERA WORK, Berlin), photographic masters Harold Egerton (Timeless Gallery, Beijing), Daido Moriyama (Three Shadows + 3 Gallery, Shanghai), Harry Callahan and Richard Misrach (Robert Mann Gallery, New York) are shown in the exhibition alongside a generation of younger collectible contemporary European, Asian and American artists. These 24 artists include Wu Ding (M Art Center, Shanghai), Jiang Pengyi (Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong), Luigi Ghirri (Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo), Andrea Good (Galerie Stephan Witschi, Zurich), Vik Muniz (Matthew Liu Fine Art, Shanghai), Shen Wei (Flowers Gallery, London & New York) and Robert Zhao as well as Geng Jianyi (ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai, Beijing & Singapore).

The Insights exhibition, which launched in Shanghai last year, annually focuses on an important moment in the development of the fine art photography market.

Daata Editions Commission powered by Artune PHOTOFAIRS is delighted to announced the launch of the Daata Editions Commission powered by Artune, The Social Platform for a Global Art Community, at the fourth edition of the fair. This year’s commission will be created by contemporary Chinese artist, Lu Yang. The new work will be available on the Daata Editions website as a free download, in response to a flourishing interest from the Asian Art Market to engage with the digital medium.

Lu Yang (born 1984, Shanghai) is a contemporary artist whose groundbreaking multimedia works explore themes such as neuroscience, mortality and religion. Yang’s work “Moving Gods” (2015) was featured in the China Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

Daata Editions commissions video, sound, poetry and web art, presenting and distributing the artworks online for purchase as limited-edition, digital downloads. Previous commissions include works by both international established and emerging artists including: Sue de Beer, Ed Fornieles, Hannah Perry, Jon Rafman and Amalia Ulman. There are over 70 artists and almost 300 artworks on the platform.

ARTUNE is The Social Platform for a Global Art Community: Follow your favorites, receive latest insights, trade works of art and discover talented artists.

2017 edition supported by leading Chinese and international partners PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai continues to work with leading Chinese and international partners who share its vision to create an engaging platform upon which to promote contemporary photography to both seasoned and new collectors. Porsche is the Presenting Partner of the 2017 edition and is joined by: Photo Partner Leica; VIP Partner American Express; Strategic Partner Branding Shanghai; Wine Partner Hennessy, Water Partner San Pellegrino and Furniture Partner Duxiana; Paper Partner Hahnemuehle; Logistics Partner Dragon Fine Art; Restaurant Partner Little Catch and Gewara is the Official Ticketing Platform for the fair.

Modern Media Group returns as the Fair’s Principle Media Partner and will present two unique installations of work curated by its magazine Numero and influential digital art and culture platform, Nowness.

The Collector Exhibition is powered by De Beers, giving unique insight into the private acquisitions of four powerful Chinese art collectors, curated by Erin Barnett, Director of Exhibition and Collections, International Center of Photography, New York. The Home of Diamonds since 1888, De Beers creates wondrous jewels with peerlessly beautiful diamonds to celebrate all of life’s events. Over 125 years of diamond mastery go into creating each individual design. De Beers is entirely committed to authenticity and integrity. De Beers meticulously hand-selects the world’s finest diamonds for their unique Fire, Life and Brilliance.

Fellow Leading Partner Lancôme is joining hands with renowned Shanghai-based photographer Charles Guo (Guo Puyuan) to present an exhibition entitled “Love your Age”, emphasising female beauty of all ages. The artist drew inspiration from the layered textures of the human face and has captured each woman’s natural look in his unique style using classical lighting techniques.

Cultural Partners of PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai include: Australian Centre of Photography (Sydney); Centre for Contemporary Photography (Melbourne); Chronus Art Center (Shanghai); LUXELAKES: A4 Art Museum (Chengdu); Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris); OCAT Xi’an, Shanghai Himalayas Museum and The Museum of Photography, Seoul. Artune and Dataa Editions are the fair’s Special Project Partners and KWM artcenter (Beijing) is the Spotlight Exhibition Partner.

International Digital Partner Artnet will create an online catalogue for PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai alongside Digital Partner Ocula, giving international collectors and the wider public the opportunity to view and experience the galleries and artworks on a year-round basis. Yitiao, VICE and YT Creative Media complete the list.

Visitors to PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai will find a wide variety of hand-selected Chinese and international magazines in the PHOTOFAIRS Newsstand courtesy of: Aesthetica; Art Bahrain; Art China; ARTCO; ArtReview; Art Trade Journal; ArtWorld; BPG Art Media; City Weekend; FOTO-VIDEO; Hi Art; Lens; Let’s Weekly; Noblesse; Photofile; Ran Dian; That’s Shanghai; Time Out Shanghai; Vellum, and VISION. PHOTOFAIRS is also grateful for the support of Media Partners: ArtFacts; Artha; ArtPrice; Artron; Artyoo; ELLE DECORATION CHINA; iArtPlanet; Musée Magazine; Mutual Art; MepaiI; Phoenix Art; Scope; Shanghai WOW!; Sola; Tendencias del Mercado del Arte; Tezign; The Artling; THE BUND; UnderstandA; VART; Widewalls; Zai-Art.