Aperture Foundation and Parsons the New School for Design present an artist talk with photographer Shen Wei. Inspired by his conservative upbringing in Shanghai, Wei’s work explores identity, memory, and sexuality. His series Chinese Sentiment documents modern China from an intimate perspective, while the series I Miss You Already exposes the artist’s own process of self-discovery. His images and their seductive blend of instinct, fantasy, anxiety, and emptiness have been featured in publications such as the New Yorker, Aperture magazine, ARTnews, GQ China, American Photo, and Chinese Photography.Shen Wei (born in Shanghai, China, 1977) lives in New York. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of the City of New York, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen, China, and is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, among others. Wei is a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Creative Arts Residency, the Asian Cultural Council Asian Art and Religion Fellowship, and the Urban Artist Initiative/NYC Fellowship. He holds an MFA in photography, video, and related media from the School of Visual Arts, New York, and a BFA in photography from Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

This is an Aperture Foundation and Parsons the New School for Design Partnership program.