• Viewing Room：Peng Ke

  • Peng Ke’s work explores the experience of living in the fast-developing urban environment, such as small cities in China. One could peek into the colorful corners of these rural cities through the finely tuned captures of Ke’s lenses. Peng Ke’s primary concern is with the relationships between the human condition of urban spaces and the collective experiences of the people there. In her photographs, the tasteful colors, charming forms, strange outlines and popping textures in the indoor and outdoor daily scenes of China among other places in Asia, are vividly and incisively displayed in their very original forms.

  • Ke's photography work discusses how photos could give a sense of timelessness so as to constantly reflect different psychological states...

    Ke's photography work discusses how photos could give a sense of timelessness so as to constantly reflect different psychological states of people living in fast developing cities. Similarly, her installation works are firmly rooted in reality but with unexpected logic. 

  • Peng Ke is skilled at capturing visual samples that are birthed and inspired by noisy urban settings, and the display of their psychological rhythm. More importantly, Peng Ke gives a unique tone of mist and warmth to the image. This artificial temperature, like a natural body temperature, reconciles absurd elements of the image.

    ——Curator Han Liya, Jimei x Arles Discovery Award, Xiamen, China

  • Starry night, 2019 6.9x3.2ft welding iron

    Starry night, 2019

    6.9x3.2ft

    welding iron 

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  • Using elements form the reality as materials, Ke intends to present the unique scenes of life in cities within a defamiliarized context in the gallery space while untouched deliberate stage arrangement. Her work discloses the psychological effect on people living in urban cities through unfolding their different living situations, ideologies and languages of self-reflections.
    • Peng Ke, Lover, 2019
      Peng Ke, Lover, 2019
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    • Peng Ke, , 2019
      Peng Ke, , 2019
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  • "I like objects that don’t have much of a style. Like patterns in colouring books, clean black lines, and primary colours. Things that aren’t trying to sell you an ideology or concept. Most visual languages are so coded, so if I see things that are almost innocent, they really stand out to me."

    ——Peng Ke, interview with British Journal of Photography, 2018
    • Peng Ke, Candle Shadow, 2019
      Peng Ke, Candle Shadow, 2019
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    • Peng Ke, Yakult, Los Angeles, 2016
      Peng Ke, Yakult, Los Angeles, 2016
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    • Peng Ke, VV and her butterfly, 2019
      Peng Ke, VV and her butterfly, 2019
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    • Peng Ke, A drawing by the ocean, trees, Showgun and I on the beach, 2019
      Peng Ke, A drawing by the ocean, trees, Showgun and I on the beach, 2019
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    • Peng Ke, Star Playground, 2019
      Peng Ke, Star Playground, 2019
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    • Peng Ke, Bubble Lights, Changde, 2018, 2018
      Peng Ke, Bubble Lights, Changde, 2018, 2018
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  • About the artist

    Peng Ke in her studio, Shanghai. 

    About the artist

    Peng Ke was born in Changsha, China, in 1992. She works with images and writes, while living between Los Angeles and Shanghai. Peng Ke’s experimental practices wandering between images from photography book and personal experiences from the reality. Graduated in 2015 from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Photography, she received Magnum Foundation and ChinaFile's Abigail Cohen fellowship in the following year. She published her first book Salt Ponds (Jiazazhi Press) in 2018 and was given the New Talent Award.Her work has been featured in exhibitions at Guangzhou Airport Biennial, Guangzhou; Lianzhou Museum of Photography, Lianzhou; and Huayu Art Center, Sanya. Recent solo exhibitions include: Peng Ke: Leaving Speed at Lianzhou Museum of Photography, Lianzhou and The Secured, Salt Projects, Beijing.