Hu Qiren – Strange Times

Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) is pleased to announce Singaporean artist, Hu Qiren (b.1983)’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Titled Strange Times, this exhibition is scheduled to run from 2 July – 6 August 2022 at Richard Koh Fine Art, Blk 47 Malan Road, #01-26 Gillman Barracks, Singapore 109444. The artist will present 10 diasec-mounted pigment prints on composite panels.

When we think of perishables, we look at their use-by date. In an era priding ourselves on productivity and pragmatism, an expiry is an indicator of prioritizing sustenance and adhering to consumption at its ripest. To ensure we remember, we gather this data of production in the most concise way: Marking a ‘best before’ statement of numbers and dates in order to serve as a timely reminder of the shelf life of our goods. Strange Times traces the why’s and how’s of such self/artistic preservation, what it takes to contain and manufacture a visual image at its freshest, and finally, to whom and when we are proclaiming our intrinsic use-by/best before dates to.

Hu Qiren (b.1983, Singapore) is a visual artist whose practice explores the myriad forms of image-making, incorporating a wide range of media, including photography, video, installation and performance. Expressing a vibrant visual vocabulary inspired by his own identity and tradition, Qiren synthesizes cultural binaries, while incessantly challenging notions of authenticity, belief and value systems.

Qiren completed his MFA in Photography and Related Media at Parsons The New School for Design under the Provost scholarship in 2015 and has showcased his works at the One World Trade Center, Queens Museum, Aperture Foundation and Photoville in New York, Louvre Museum in Paris, Singapore International Photography Festival, Pingyao International Photography Festival in China, Auckland Festival of Photography in New Zealand and at the Theory of Clouds Gallery & Community Worldwide in Kobe, Japan.

In 2016, Qiren was the grand winner of the Harper’s BAZAAR Art Prize.