I am excited to return to San Francisco and exhibit at Togonon Gallery for Counterpoint 2011: Journey to the East – Photographs.  Thank you to Julina Togonon (Gallery Director) and Stathis Gerostathopoulos (Art Historian) for curating this show.  I look forward to exhibiting with fellow artists BJ and Richeille Formento.

From Togonon Gallery’s press release:

San Francisco, CA – In its third year, Counterpoint 2011 presents the works of three artists, Peikwen Cheng and the team of BJ and Richeille Formento, photographers with markedly different styles, backgrounds and conceptual leanings.  Originally from the Bay Area, they are reporting back from their respective ancestral homelands in Asia.

Award-winning photographer Peikwen Cheng moved to Beijing five years ago and begun to document the changing face of a city in the middle of a process of massive urbanization that coincided with the 2008 Olympic games. His photographs from the series “Gai,” which means to build (盖) or transform (改) in Chinese, explore the dramatic physical transformation of China, capturing the form and energy of this change in private quarters (Imperial courtyards to mega residential communities) and public spaces (Tiananmen Square to the National Olympic Stadium).

BJ and Richeille Formento, are an artistic duo that are successfully crisscrossing the terrain between commercial and fine art photography.  Their work has been exhibited and commissioned in Europe and the U.S.  Earlier in his career, Formento has assisted well-known photographers Mary Ellen Mark and Annie Liebowitz. For the Counterpoint 2011 project, the Formentos returned to the Philippines to capture the essence of the people in their changing contemporary lives.  Their portraits convey the complexities and incongruities of the Philippine culture, the impact of its colonial pasts and the unique influences of its geography.

Exhibition Details:

Counterpoint 2011: Journey to the East - Photographs
Peikwen Cheng, BJ Formento and Richeille Formento

Venue: 77 Geary, 2nd. Fl near Union Square, San Francisco
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11-5:30 p.m.

Exhibition Dates: December 1 – January 7* 
*Year-end break December 23 to January 4, 2011

Opening Reception: Thursday, December 1, 2011, 5-7 p.m.

For more information, visit Togonon Gallery

I hope to see you at the Opening.  Best wises and Happy Holidays!

Peikwen

At the Center

Congratulations to the Renaissance team and committee, and in particular to Fiona Gifford and Monica Takvam, on a most successful Renaissance Photography Prize 2011 – fundraising a record amount towards Breast Cancer Care.  The exhibition and gala event were a success with over 500 people in attendance at the Gala event.

I was surprised and honored to receive two awards for my images Lamp Mobile and Free on the Range for the categories of Environment and Motion respectively.  A special thanks to judges Michael Hoppen, Brian Aris, Bridgette Lardinois, Philippe Garner, Rhonda Wilson and Lorna-Mary Webb.  It was wonderful meeting the panel in person, as well as many of my fellow photographers.

London wouldn’t have been the same without friends.  A big thanks to the crew that supported me and shared pints:  Alex, Anna, Antonio, Avid, Blake, Doug, Courtney, Ed, Erin, Esther, Fran, Liana, Mark, Mike, Seiji and Scott.

Outside the Renaissance Photography Prize - Mall Galleries, London

Renaissance Photography Prize - Gala Event - Mall Galleries, London

Peikwen Cheng receiving Renaissance Photography Category Prize

I am honored to be selected to C/O Berlin’s distinguished Talents 2011 program:

Since 2006, in the Talents exhibition series, C/O’s e.V. has been promoting young photographers and art critics at the threshold between education and career. Each year, four photographers are chosen to exhibit their work on a specific theme at C/O Berlin in the Postfuhramt as well as at the Goethe Institute in New York City. Each solo exhibition is accompanied by a publication in which images and text enter into dialogue. Talents is an experimentation space for young international contemporary photography and art criticism. As a platform for the future, the C/O Berlin Talents program is unique and unrivalled in Europe.

Congratulations to my fellow photographers who will also be participating:

• Mirko Martin (Germany)
• Anne Schuhmann (Germany)
• Timotheus Tomicek (Austria)

Big thanks to the esteemed panel for supporting our work:

• Felix Hoffmann (Curator, C/O Berlin)
• Anne-Marie Meckmann (Deutsche Börse Groupe)
• David Elliott (Curator, Author)
• Anton Corbijn (Photographer)

As details become available, I will provide more information about my solo exhibitions later this year in Berlin at C/O Berlin and in New York at the Goethe Institute.

Launching out of Oblivion

I’m honored to be shortlisted twice for this year’s Renaissance Photography Prize and will be exhibiting work at the Mall Galleries in London, March 21-26, 2011 along with fellow selected winners.

The Renaissance Photography Prize benefits an important cause – fund raising for breast cancer research and care.

Thank you to the Renaissance team and this year’s esteemed judges:

• Brian Aris
• Philippe Garner
• Michael Hoppen
• Brigitte Lardinois
• Lorna-Mary Webb

For more information about the exhibition and Celebrity Private Gala event (March 23), please go to Renaissance’s website.

Mall Galleries

Free on the Range

Lamp Mobile

I am honored to participate in AM Gallery’s exhibition, Intimate China – featuring China-based artists:

• Peikwen Cheng, Seppe Van Grieken, Jonathan Browning, Ryan Pyle, Jingyi Yang, Gemma Thorpe, Stefen Chow, Boris Austin, Jasper James, David Hartung, Camille Levert, and Simon Dean

AM Gallery
1 Borough Street
Brighton, United Kingdom

Exhibition: March 1-20, 2011
Opening: March 1, 8pm

Meshing Past, Present and Future

I am honored to exhibit at the Singapore International Photography Festival, October 14 – November 13, 2010. I will showing work in an exhibition curated by Yasufumi Nakamori (Curator of Photography, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston).

The Photographic Society of Singapore, Selegie Arts Centre, 15 Oct – 13 Nov

Exhibitions:

The Aftermath by Johannes P. Christo
Lost and Found by Peikwen Cheng
Take Turn by Prateep Suthathongthai
Concrete Euphoria by Samantha Tio
City Eyes (2008 – 2010) by Sameer Tawde

Venue:
The Photographic Society of Singapore
Selegie Arts Centre, 30 Selegie Road, Singapore 188351

Tel: (65) 6334 3361
Tue to Fri: 2pm – 10pm
Sat & Sun: 12pm – 6pm

I am delighted to be invited to exhibit at the Singapore International Photography Festival, October – November 2010:

The SIPF is a worldwide biennial gathering of minds commonly pursuing the advancement and appreciation of photography. An arena for critical thought and academic discussion on photography in Southeast Asia, the festival also functions as a platform to nurture and propel photographers onto the international stage

Thank you to the Curators for their acceptance of my work:

Yasufumi Nakamori (Japan/United States of America) – Curator of Photography, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Ark Fongsmut (Thailand) – Director of Bangkok University Gallery

Bridget Tracy Tan (Singapore) – Director of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Gallery

Chow Chee Yong (Singapore)  – Lecturer of Temasek Polytechnic

I am honored to be nominated and excited to participate in LOOKbetween – an exhibition and mentorship program for emerging photographers – June 11-13, 2010.

LOOK3 – Festival of the Photograph – who is organizing this event describes it as:

An experimental two night event to present the work of 90 innovative photographers on a farm 30 minutes west of Charlottesville. This initiative, which we are calling LOOKbetween, is designed to showcase early-career talent and engage the presenting artists with media professionals on practices and trends influencing the direction of photography today. We want to turn the traditional mentorship model on its head and let the next generation of photographers, editors, publishers, curators, and media professionals share their vision for the future.

2010 LOOKbetween Nominators, include:

• Scott Thode, LOOK3 Board Member
• Kathy Ryan, LOOK3 Board Member
• Vincent J. Musi, LOOK3 Board Member
• David Griffin, LOOK3 Board Member, National Geographic magazine
• Susan Smith, National Geographic magazine
• Ken Greenberg, BD
• David Alan Harvey, Burn Magazine, Magnum Photos
• Anton Kusters, Burn Magazine
• Laura Pressley, Center
• Cristina Mittermeier, iLCP
• Kathy Moran, National Geographic magazine and iLCP
• Gary Knight, VII
• Luceo Images
• Jon Feinstein, Humble Arts Foundation
• Amani Olu, Humble Arts Foundation
• Jane Sievert, Patagonia
• Mike Davis, Freelance Photo Editor
• Cara Phillips, Piece of Cake
• Laura Moya, Photolucida
• Christina Cahill, Getty Images
• Aidan Sullivan, Getty Images
• Pete Kiehart, Getty Images
• Andy Adams, Flak Photo
• Laura Brunow Miner, Pictory
• The Exposure Project
• Amber Terranova, PDN
• Lauren Wendle, PDN
• Conor Risch, PDN
• Holly Hughes, PDN

I’m looking forward to meeting new friends/colleagues/mentors, seeing great work, sharing ideas and enjoying Nature!

Thank you to Hossein Farmani (Lucie Foundation), Patrick Kahn (The Book LA) and Heidi Jaffe for inviting me to exhibit photographs from my Lost and Found series at Snap! Orlando – a four day celebration of photography featuring reknown and emerging photographers from around the World.  Orlando, FL.  May 20-23, 2010

I am honored to be selected by the Magenta Foundation for their annual Flash Forward award recognizing Emerging Photographers.  I will be exhibiting work from my series “Gai” at the Griffin Museum of Photography as part of the exhibition:

Flash Forward 2009 – Emerging Photographers from Canada, the UK and US from the Magenta Foundation

Exhibition: April 8 through May 9, 2010
Opening reception: April 15, 6-9 PM

More exhibition details at the Griffin Museum and at the Magenta Foundation.