The Pomonan
Published 1-1-2022 6Am PST

Yiwei Gallery is pleased to present PeiPei Li: New Order, an exhibition inspired by the detrimental effects of our fashion-conscious consumerist society. Today, fashion trends and style turnover are heavily influenced by consumerism. Because fashion brands have an incentive to make as much money as possible for shareholders, they must quickly respond to the trends of today by making more clothes.

One reason why fast fashion brands are so successful is that they use the fast-paced cycling of trends as a tool to put pressure on people to keep up with our rapidly changing times, look the most fashionable, and have the newest items. This pressure caused by consumerism feeds into a cycle of vanity (and insecurity) that makes people feel anxious, stressed and self-conscious.

The artist Peipei Li explores these ideas by covering everything in sight with heavy, almost gluttonous layers of clothing in order to make people feel consumed and oppressed by consumerism. We hope that through experiencing New Order, observers will reflect on the vanity and burden of our society’s consumer obsession with fashion and keep these negative effects in mind when making future fashion buying decisions.

The zine New Order published on the Occasion of the exhibition New Order Yiwei Gallery, Venice, CA
April 8-April 30, 2022 (Curious Publishing)

Opening Reception: Friday, Apr 08, 2022, 5-8 pm
Duration: Apr 08 - Apr 30, 2022
For inquiries, please contact i nfo@yiweigallery.com

Yiwei Gallery is pleased to present the American debut exhibition of Oakland-based Chinese artist Zhang Mengjiao. This exhibition includes two latest photography series from Zhang, Flat Power, and We Don’t Speak the Same Language, along with a unique sound installation.

Investigating how beauty was portrayed in traditional Chinese archives, and how it is conceived in Chinese social media today because of globalization, Zhang realizes that the gaze and constraint on women have remained the same. In Flat Power, Zhang makes masks from materials that represent the idea of beauty and transforms this performance into a 2D photograph. By presenting beauty as a constructed idea, she asks the question of how one can subvert the dominant discourse.

Brought back to a zoo by her childhood nostalgia, Zhang did not feel the same about these idealized human-constructed habitats for animals anymore. In We Don’t Speak the Same Language, Zhang turns the lens to the artificial landscapes in a zoo and explores deeper how artifice emerges from a photographic process.

Zhang Mengjiao received her MFA degree from San Francisco Art Institute in 2020. She works with photography, sculptural installation, and performance video. Zhang’s practice often looks inward at her own identity as a woman of color, Chinese immigrant, artist, and human, and outward at social issues.

Yiwei Gallery Presents
For the Sake of…the Artifice!
June 18 - July 3, 2021

Curated by Yiwei Lu

Kylin Gallery
8634 Wilshire Blvd,
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

To make an appointment, visit here
For inquiries, please contact YiweiGallery@gmail.com