Previous Years
2023
This year, with the support of The New York Times Life and Arts China as lead partner, independent curator Yang Zi presents a special exhibition titled Listen, Listen to the World, an adaptation of the magazine’s December 2022 cover story, exploring the structures of contemporary living, and the human response to the many external stimuli, notifications, signals and commands we receive day-to-day. The featured artists are Hu Weiyi, Hu Yinping, Liu Chuang, Liu Fujie, Li Hanwei, Shi Guowei, and Wu Ding, and the presentation will include new work created especially for the fair.
2021
The 2018 Insights exhibition, Imaging our Futures, was curated by HE Yining. The exhibition features the works of twelve international artists and collectives from around the world who investigate topics closely related to the future of human life. The exhibition invites the viewer to explore a future world constructed by each participating artist, and join them in contemplating the complex relationship between image and data, and the significance that extends from the intersection of digital and media ecologies.
2019
In 2019, PHOTOFAIRS has commissioned Para Site (Hong Kong) Asia’s leading contemporary art centre, to curate a topical exhibition for Insights. “Fieldwork” was created by Deputy Director Claire Shea, drawing from a wide network of established and emerging artists from East and South East Asia to explore photography’s role in shaping our history and perceptions. The exhibition studied the contemporary power of the medium to re-examine those histories and shed light on points of view that were previously overlooked. This was particularly pertinent in light of today’s state of current affairs.
2018
The 2018 Insights exhibition revisited the 1999 exhibition The Same But Also Changed. The exhibition was one of the first to explore contemporary photography in Shanghai at a time where there was a shift in experimental and conceptual lens-based practices in China. Bringing together 15 Chinese artists, the 2018 exhibition aimed to explore the new and diverse approaches that had emerged within contemporary Chinese photography.
2017
The second edition of Insights | A Colour Explosion was curated by Alexander Montague-Sparey and traced the influence of pioneering artists such as William Eggleston (CAMERA WORK, Berlin) and Harry Callahan (Robert Mann Gallery, New York) on the next generation of contemporary artists including Jiang Pengyi (Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong), Andrea Good (Galerie Stephan Witschi, Zurich), Shen Wei (Flowers Gallery, London & New York) and Robert Zhao (ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai, Beijing & Singapore).
2016
Co-curated by leading independent curator Biljana Ciric and Alexander Montague-Sparey, the inaugural edition will look at new approaches to traditional photography techniques and challenge our perceptions of the medium. The exhibition will feature work by 13 artists including Peter Beard, Birdhead, Geng Jianyi, Lee Kit, Helmut Newton, Shao Wenhuan and Sukho Kang – each of whom work in original and breathtaking ways.