Akio Nagasawa Gallery Aoyama is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibition of works by the Chinese photographer Lin Zhipeng, aka No.223. Lin Zhipeng was born in 1979 in Guangdong, China, and currently lives and works in Beijing as a photographer and freelance writer.

Having been publishing photographs and short texts on his own blog since 2003, Lin began to focus more seriously on photography in 2004. Assuming at once the position of editor-in-chief and publisher of his own independent magazine, and frequently working in the realm of fashion photography, Lin’s activities have a significant influence on young Chinese.
Lin continues to photograph – mainly with a film camera – close friends and other people around him, to create portraits of the daily life and culture of young people in present-day China. The resulting snapshots sometimes look erotic, but that’s not really the artist’s intention behind capturing such scenes. For him, sex is an essential part of young people’s everyday life, on the same level as eating and sleeping for example.
Being from China, a country with strict regulations regarding expressions of sexual matters, Lin Zhipeng does not operate under his real name, but chose to use the alias “No.223.” He doesn’t seem to find it difficult to continue to work, probably because even though public displays of nude photographs are prohibited in his country, in the Beijing art scene people seem much more relaxed and rather open to depictions of nudity.

In recent years, Lin has been exhibiting his works mainly in Belgium, Paris, Berlin, and other places in Europe. This exhibition is his first solo show in Japan and it displays about 70 prints, ranging from his early works to more recent ones. Please also don’t miss the opportunity to secure your signed copy of his photo book Flowers and Fruits (T&M Projects), which will be on sale at the venue.