Liang Yue: Shanghai Candid/Women in Motion
Co-curated with Abby Chen. San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries: City Hall. June - August 2010
Shanghai Candid by emerging Shanghai-based photographer Liang Yue offers an intimate glimpse into the daily lives of women navigating the urban landscape of downtown Shanghai. Through a raw, snapshot aesthetic, Yue captures women commuting, shopping, and strolling, intentionally subverting any lingering preconceived notions of Shanghai as an exotic locale. The candid images portray contemporary urban dwellers, with cityscapes that mirror those of any metropolis in the developed world. In fact, one might imagine that many of the exhibited photographs depict downtown San Francisco. These images do not depict a story unique to Shanghai; rather, the lack of site-specificity highlights the universal experiences shared between San Francisco and its Sister City, Shanghai.
Yue's work challenges viewers to reconsider the narratives surrounding urban spaces and the women who inhabit them. By focusing on the everyday moments of ordinary women, Shanghai Candid emphasizes the commonalities that connect global cities, inviting reflection on the shared human experiences that transcend cultural and geographical boundaries.
This exhibition was presented in conjunction with a citywide celebration of the San Francsico - Shanghai Sister City relationship.
About Liang Yue
Liang Yue is a photographer and video artist known for her quiet, contemplative explorations of everyday life. Born in Shanghai in 1979, she graduated from the Shanghai Art Academy in 2001 and is currently based in Toronto, Canada. Her work is rooted in a deep attentiveness to the rhythms of the ordinary—moments that might otherwise go unnoticed. Using modest materials and a deliberately pared-down approach, Liang turns her lens toward both urban and natural environments, capturing stillness, repetition, and subtle shifts in light, time, and atmosphere. Her images and video works often hover between stillness and movement, offering space for reflection and a slowed-down way of seeing.
Liang has developed a consistent visual language that resists spectacle and embraces the poetic potential of the seemingly insignificant. Her video works, in particular, are marked by a rejection of conventional editing and narrative structures. By stripping away technical flourishes, she invites viewers to engage with time differently—through patience, attention, and quiet observation. Whether focused on a passing shadow, the fading light of dusk, or the hum of an empty room, her work questions the frameworks through which we assign meaning and value to art and to daily life itself. Through this practice, Liang Yue challenges viewers to reconsider what it means to truly look, and to find resonance in the ordinary.