Husband and wife Shao Yinong & Mu Chen work together in Beijing to create photographs that illuminate the facets and functions of memory - a poignant process in China where a conservative agricultural society has been propelled within a few decades into an economic superpower. Their series “Assembly Hall” consists of documentary photographs of spaces annexed during the Cultural Revolution for political meetings. The halls' various subsequent fates mirror the experiences of people who have lived through China’s period of extreme political turmoil. Shao Yinong and Mu Chen’s large scale color photographs have attracted critical attention not only for their ability to evoke and examine the tension between the political past and the political present, but also for the subtle beauty of their images. Their work has been widely exhibited, particularly in the important Alors la Chine exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris and in Arles.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2006

10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong

2005

The Assembly Halls, FotoGrafia-Festival Internazionale di Rome, Museum of Trastevere Rome,

Italy

2004

Illusions of Memory: Recent Photographs by Shao Yinong & Mu Chen, Goedhuis

Contemporary, New York, USA

2003

Shao Yinong & Mu Chen Works Exhibition, Rencontres d’ Arles, France

2002

Family Register: Shao Yinong & Mu Chen Works Exhibition, Courtyard Gallery,

Beijing, China

History of Time: Shao Yinong & Mu Chen Photography Exhibition, Pingyao, China

International Photography Exhibition, Shanxi, China

1996

Shao Zhenpeng Oil Painting Exhibition, TAO Gallery, Beijing, China

Selected Group Exhibitions

2007

Made in China, The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark

Zhù yi! Fotografia actual en China, ARTIUM Centro-Museum Vasco de Arte

Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

Thermocline of Art: New Asian Waves, Museum fur Neue Kunst & Mediemuseum,

Karlsruhe, Germany

2006

China Now – Kunst in Zeiten des Umbruchs, Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg, Austria

Another World, Photography from China, Lukas Feichtner Galerie, Vienna, Austria

2005

Mahjong, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland

Contemporary Art from Greater China, Goedhuis Contemporary, New York; London, United

Kingdom

Born in China, Goedhuis Contemporary, New York, USA

2004

Chinese Eyes: Contemporary Photography from China, Goedhuis Contemporary, New York,

USA

2003

Alors La Chine?, Pompidou Center, France