On Set | Artist: Liu Shuwei

 

In the exhibition On Set, artist Liu Shuwei intertwines personal perception with collective memory through moving images, constructing a visual narrative that hovers between documentary reality and emotional projection. He is adept at capturing fragile, unrepeatable moments within the flow of time and space, making his imagery not only a vessel for the act of seeing but also a re-creation of psychological and sensory experience. For him, “distance” is a recurring motif—signifying separation from the world, from specific cultural contexts, and from different facets of the self. This shifting tension allows his works to sustain a delicate balance between intimacy and detachment.

 

29w x 24h x 10d cm

Editions of 5+1AP

© Courtesy of the artist

 

“It looks so much like summer, but it was actually shot in the dead of winter. The light seems to penetrate it and reach another body from another place. The intimacy and even reverence of that period do not seem to belong to this category.”

 

In recent years, he has held multiple solo exhibitions, including Vanishing Act (Maison Ming, Hong Kong, 2025), Tides, yes, breathing (Festival Photo Saint-Germain, Paris, 2024), and Blue Trilogy (Vu Photo, Quebec, 2017). His works have also been presented at major institutions and platforms such as the Power Station of Art (Shanghai), Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai), PHmuseum, and the Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival. He has been shortlisted for the Three Shadows Photography Award and the LensCulture Portrait Award, and has attracted attention from international media including The New York Times, i-D, LEAP, and Artforum.

 

39w x 30.4h x 10d cm

Editions of 3+1AP

© Courtesy of the artist

 

Now living and working in Shanghai, Liu Shuwei uses the medium of photography and moving images as the core of his practice, allowing them to expand into diverse material and installation-based forms. His works confront the latent fears, transformations, and uncertainties of life, seeking to capture the ongoing disappearances that occur amid turbulence—whether in cultural or subcultural contexts, or within the hidden dimensions of the self. He also revisits historical events largely forgotten by the public but still lingering like ghosts in space and time, capable of reappearing with their essential nature intact. By uncovering hidden connections within these events, he responds to contemporary reality. Through carefully constructed narrative frameworks and perceptual rhythms, he explores how the experience of time can be extended—or even altered—through the act of viewing.

 

Liu’s artistic practice begins with the narrative potential of images, concerning not only the transmission of visual information but also the viewer’s psychological immersion, rendering the image an almost tactile presence. As time is stretched or folded, the boundary between reality and illusion becomes increasingly blurred.

 

29w x 24h x 10d cm

Editions of 5+1AP

© Courtesy of the artist

 

 

For Liu Shuwei, art is not about hastening toward an answer, but about using the breathing quality of images and the subtle arrangement of space to guide audiences into an open state of perception.

 

In On Set, Liu’s works unfold like a silent rehearsal: the images are at once truncated narratives and echoes from the depths of memory. They avoid grand events, instead seeking energy at the threshold between the everyday and the intimate—turning imagery into an ongoing inquiry into time, sensation, and existence.

 

 

Installation view of On Set, August 2, 2025 - Sept 14, 2025, Nan Ke Gallery, Shanghai ©  Courtesy of Nan Ke Gallery,   Photographed by Runxin.