Trained as a painter, Wang Qingsong turned to photography in the late 1990s in order to convey a distinctive and often acerbic vision of Chinese society during the country's current economic boom. Working in the manner of a film director, he stages elaborate scenes involving dozens of models and his large-scale color photographs often combine references to classic Chinese art with ironic nods to China's new material wealth and rapidly growing consumer culture
The Beijing-based artist is now enjoying a solo exhibition, "Wang Qingsong: When Worlds Collide” at the International Center for Photography in Manhattan, which should the evolution of his practice, from the first digital photomontages (such as Requesting Buddha) to his extravagant set arrangements. The exhibition presents a selection of photographs and videos meant to introduce three of the most important themes that run through his substantial body of work: the artist’s continuing development of ideas that emerged in the Gaudy Art movement; the impact of China’s post-Mao economic opening to the West and the arrival of global consumer culture; and a dramatization of the acute social tensions associated with the influx of millions of migrant laborers to China’s cities.