This October, Element Art Space (formerly known as SBin Art Plus) presents Masses, a solo photography exhibition on China’s emergence as a powerful nation as provocatively portrayed and interpreted by established Chinese artist, Tie Ying.

Exploring China’s history as seen through his lens, Tie Ying’s solo showcase of 14 photography works traces China’s transition from the Cultural Revolution through to the rapid developments of current modernisation and the political ramifications behind the conflicting interests of an ambitious world power. His works also serve as a semi autobiographical documentation of his personal experience of living through that turbulent and unsettled period.

Through his works, Tie Ying attempts to re-create and reconstruct the optical truth and memory. This is exemplified in Flags & Torches 02, where he created a visual disturbance in the image that China showcased to the world to question the success of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and the public’s knowledge of what really went on behind the scenes.

About the Artist

Born in 1971 in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China, Tie Ying is a classical painter who graduated from the oil painting department of the renowned Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts, and later studied at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Stockholm, Sweden. There, he commenced creating works with photography as a main source to articulate his artistic expressions. Tie Ying returned from Sweden to Beijing in 1999, after two years of studies. The cultural shock from a life of Scandinavian tranquility and streamlined landscape to an ever-changing face and pace in the capital of China compelled him to create a large amount of photography works to capture the glimpse and the split second moments of the encyclopaedic modern Chinese society, which also  serves as semi-autobiographical documentations.

Tie Ying has participated in both solo and group exhibitions internationally, throughout Europe and Asia. Well sought after in the international art scene, his works are included in the PALM collection in London, DSL Collection in Paris, Chinart Collection in Zurich, Barclays Wealth Monaco and Marlborough Fine Arts Inc in New York, USA.

Tie Ying currently lives and works in Beijing, China.