M97 Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition “Hokkaido to Huangshan”, which will include more than 30 silver gelatin photographs of recent works by internationally acclaimed photographer Michael Kenna. Spanning across Asia from Hokkaido to Huangshan to Halong Bay in Vietnam, this will be the artist’s second exhibition in Shanghai, after his solo exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum in 2007.

Michael Kenna is widely known for his enigmatic and ethereal landscape photographs, and is regarded as a present-day master of the black and white genre. Often using minimal elements and compositions, Kenna creates works of extreme beauty that touch the pinnacle of the viewer’s imagination.

The timeless landscapes of China’s Huangshan Mountain and Hokkaido’s pristine natural world have been a source of inspiration for painters and poets throughout history. Uniquely-shaped granite peaks, statuesque pine trees, rock faces, zen-like winter snowscapes, and the fleeting elements - clouds, fog, mist – are in a constant state of flux between tension and resolution throughout Kenna’s work. Often using hour-long exposures at twilight or dawn, his poetic photographs seem to reduce the quintessence of a scene to its most primal and important components, resulting in a visual haiku-like style that borders on the otherworldy. “

My works are like Haiku more than prose. I don’t describe what is there. Instead, I tend to employ one or two elements as the catalyst of my imagination,” says Kenna.

“Hokkaido to Huangshan” will be the artist’s first exhibition at M97 and Mr. Kenna will be present at the opening of the exhibition on March 17.