Almost Naked is a series of portraits exploring identity and sexuality in America. Inspired by the artist's upbringing in conservative China, and motivated by his passion to understand the complexity of emotion, desire, introspection and instinct.
THE ARTIST:
Shen Wei was born in 1977 in Shanghai, China. His work has been exhibited internationally, with venues including the Museum of the City of New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Flowers Gallery in New York, and the Signum Foundation in Poland. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Getty Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Library of Congress, the He Xiangning Art Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Museum of Chinese in America, among others. He is a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Arts Residency, the Asian Cultural Council Arts Fellowship, the New York Foundation for the Arts Photography Fellowship. He holds an MFA in photography, video, and related media from the School of Visual Arts, New York; and a BFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design.