Your Portrait  2020

Digital photography, inkjet printing on Hahnemühle FineArt paper.

Approximate work size: 40X30 cm

Number of works: 18 in total Edition : 8

Mounted on aluminum-plastic panels and framed with black suspension frames 

This group of works taken in July 2020 is entitled "Portrait of You", which symbolizes the lives of modern people in heavy armor. It is also a portrayal of the world today under the dual effects of the pandemic and politics.

I used a large-format wooden machine with a size of 6 × 9 as the lens, and I then used a digital camera to reshoot it. The old and new machines form a large body. The lens from a hundred years ago is responsible for observation, and the most modern digital camera is used as a record. It is likely to represent the old saying: “Covet gains ahead without being aware of danger behind.” The camera and the world have formed a multi-layered relationship, which makes reality even more unreal in the photo. However, the image also has a certain poetic quality, breaking free from the pursuit of reality, and getting closer to the possibility of becoming a spiritual portrayal.

The last knight in Shanghai  2020 

Digital photography, inkjet printing on Hahnemühle FineArt paper.

Work size: 135 × 90 cm

Number of works: 2 in total Edition : 8

Mounted on aluminum-plastic panels 

I finished the work on June, 2020. I photographed the ancestral residence of my uncle which is about to be demolished. The residence is located in No. 418 Xinzha Road, Shanghai, which was built in 1925, and was demolished on July 15, 2020.

This is a picture in my mind, and I presented it using photography.

As a native of Shanghai, I witnessed the development of this city. My childhood memories and coordinates were removed one by one, and countless things were erased by time. Gradually, I have become accustomed to this kind of disappearance. The development of a city and people’s private memories are in conflict with each other. Sometimes it’s like a life-and-death battle. This time, the private memory is defeated. A lonely knight with full-body armor is trapped in the memory that can no longer continue, like a joke.

Ma Liang/Maleonn was born in Shanghai in 1972, and began to study professional art in the middle school of Shanghai Huashan Art School at the age of 12. In 1995, he graduated from the School of Fine Arts of Shanghai University, majoring in design. He received professional art education for 11 years.

From 1995 to 2003, he was engaged in the work of an art director for advertisements, and won the gold medal in China advertising Festival twice successively, as well as various other relevant awards more than 10 times. In 2004, he returned to the field of art creation that he loved and began to engage in photographic art creation, as well as painting and installation art creation. Currently he lives and works in Shanghai. In 2012, I created my Mobile Photo Studio, a temporary photo studio set up in 35 cities across the country in 10 months, and took photos of more than 1,600 people for free, which received a strong response. In 2012, he published the literary work "Frank Book", which became the first best-selling art book that month. 

Selected Exhibitions

2010 MALEONN-Ma Liang solo exhibition, Gallerie s.e, Bergon, Norway

2010 Gamer, CO2 gallery, Rome, Italy

2010 album of plants, STILLS gallery, Sydney, Australia

2010 rebuilt reality, Blind spot gallery, Hongkong

2010 white on the white, Bund 18 gallery, Shanghai, China

2009 fairy tale of the city, Art Next Gallery, New York, USA

2008 Mirror garden—Ma Liang solo exhibition, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China

2008 Ma Liang solo exhibition, Tribeca Arte gallery, Madrid, Spain

2008 MALEONN—Ma Liang solo exhibition, Espace Art 22 gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2005 Ma Liang, Pingyao International Photography Festival, China 

Image and Text Courtesy of the Artist.

Translated and Edited by Sue and Emily/CAFA ART INFO