SHANGHAI.- M97 Gallery presents the exhibition “Hokkaido to Huangshan”, which includes over 30 recent silver gelatin photographs by internationally acclaimed photographer Michael Kenna. Spanning across Asia from Hokkaido to Huangshan to Halong Bay in Vietnam, this will be Mr. Kenna’s second exhibition in Shanghai, after his 2007 solo exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum.

Michael Kenna is widely known for his enigmatic and ethereal black and white photographs, and is regarded as a contemporary master of the landscape genre. Often using minimal elements and compositions, Kenna creates works of extreme beauty that touch the pinnacle of the viewer’s imagination.

The timeless landscapes of China’s Huangshan Mountain and Hokkaido’s pristine natural world have been a source of inspiration for painters and poets throughout history. Uniquely-shaped granite peaks, statuesque pine trees, rock faces, zen-like winter snowscapes, and the fleeting elements - clouds, fog, mist – are in a transient yet timeless state of flux between tension and resolution throughout Kenna’s work.

Often using long exposures at twilight or dawn, his poetic photographs seem to reduce the quintessence of a scene to its most primal and important components, resulting in a visual haiku-like style that borders on the otherworldy.

“My works are like Haiku more than prose. I don’t describe what is there. Instead, I tend to employ one or two elements as the catalyst of my imagination,” says Kenna.

“Hokkaido to Huangshan” is the artist’s first exhibition at M97.

Michael Kenna
Michael Kenna was born in 1953 in England and currently lives in Seattle, United States. Throughout the decades his signature photographic style has been praised for its outstanding quality. His works have been displayed in more than 600 exhibitions and museums around the world, and have been included in numerous permanent collections such as the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Michael Kenna’s photographs have consistently attracted both private and public collectors as well as photography enthusiasts around the world.