Wolfgang Tillmans presents his first show in Hong Kong

You might know him as one of the most popular and lauded photographers in modern day, or maybe you know him through his musical work. Or maybe, you only found out about him when he collaborated with Frank Ocean on 2016’s Endless. Either way, it’s an exciting time to be in Hong Kong (and it’s about time to discover his body of work) because for the first time ever, Wolfgang Tillmans is showing an exhibition in the city. 

Hosted in the newly-opened David Zwirner gallery at H Queen’s, the show is at the heart of Central and follows some of the photographer’s prolific solo exhibitions at Tate Modern, London (2017), Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2017), Kunstverein in Hamburg (2017) and more. Tillmans’s new show will feature a broad selection of his work, including some never-publicly-seen photographs. Most of his work is a reflection of his surroundings, and the exhibition juxtaposes images of friendship and affection against images of the world at large. 

“Spread across the two floors of the Hong Kong gallery, the exhibition will present recent developments in Tillmans’s portraiture and still lifes, beginning with an infrared self-portrait in which light is blocked out to allow for electromagnetic radiation to reveal thermal energy. Various other processing strategies are deployed throughout the works on view, with figurative scenes interspersed with abstract photographs composed on a photocopying machine and Xeroxes containing text fragments.”

Head over to H Queen’s to see the exhibition, but check out the recap above. 

Dates: March 26 – May 12, 2018

Photos courtesy of David Zwirner