Standing in the Shadow: Cheng Ran, Li Ran and Hiraki Sawa

Ota Fine Arts is pleased to present "Standing in the Shadow", a group exhibition featuring a selection of video works by three remarkable young Asian artists: Cheng Ran, Li Ran and Hiraki Sawa. Wherever these artists stand, within disparate art communities in Europe and East Asia, the moving images they create reflect their desire to reach a realm beyond their individual circumstances, their personal stories and aesthetic histories.

Cheng Ran
Born in 1981 in Inner Mongolia, China, Cheng Ran graduated from the Chinese Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China. After graduating, he worked for Chinese video artist and filmmaker Yang Fudong for five years. Today Cheng is based between Hangzhou and Amsterdam, crafting video installations and sound pieces that explore the possibilities of cinematic, poetic and performative languages that emerge from both European art-house film and traditional Chinese aesthetics. Cheng has recently participated in the Residency Studio Project at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has participated in notable group exhibitions and film festivals including ON|OFF: China's Young Artists in Concepts and Practice, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2013); The 1st CAFAM FUTURE, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China (2012); Kino der Kunst Film Festival, Munich, Germany (2013); and the 26th European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, Germany (2013).

Li Ran
Born in 1986 in Hubei, China, Li Ran graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute with a BFA. He currently lives and works in Beijing, where he co-founded the "COMPANY" project. Working across performance, video and installation, Li responds to the tensions wrought by canonical Eurocentric art history with peculiar humour and ambivalent parody. He has participated in the 9th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea (2012); Unfinished Country: New Video from China, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, USA (2012); and FORMER WEST: Documents, Constellations, Prospects at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany (2013). His recent solo exhibitions include Archive 23 - Li Ran, Video Bureau, Beijing, China (2014); and I Want To Talk To You, But Not All Of You, Goethe-Institute Open Space, Shanghai, China (2012).

Hiraki Sawa
Born in 1977 in Ishikawa, Japan, Hiraki Sawa studied fine art and went on to pursue his MFA in sculpture at Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he continues to work till today. His video work and moving image installations reveal imaginary spaces that play with the often unexpected textures of memory and artifice. Sawa has participated in The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (2009); the 17th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia (2010); and the 2011 Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu, China (2011), amongst other exhibitions worldwide. His solo exhibitions have been held at the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2006); la Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archeologie, Besançon, France (2010); the Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2012); and most recently, the Tokyo Opera City Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2014).