Through repeated scanning and reprinting of her original images, Wen Feiyi discards photographic precision to acquire a painterly softness in her work. Her photographs, human-less and hushed, offer a space for reflection, where nature breathes without spectacle. Here, a flower’s fleeting bloom becomes a memento mori.
By presenting nature stripped of human presence and by collapsing perspectival depth into flattened, non-linear space, Wen adapts the visual principles of Chinese painting to her own modern printing processes. By resisting Western one-point perspective, she encourages open interpretation over fixed meaning. The result is a visual field that feels expansive, yet introspective.
Her layered prints on rice paper draw on the Chinese literary concept Qing Jing Jiao Rong 情景交融 (the fusion of scene and emotion), a framework that has informed broad strands of Eastern aesthetic thought and resonates with Nishida Kitarō’s philosophy of Basho (place), where human life and the natural world intersect.
Wen’s practice is a meditation on duality—East and West, human and machine, analogue and digital. Rooted in the traditions of East Asian landscape painting and the mechanised aesthetics of early 20th-century Japan and China, her work is a bridge from these historical disciplines to a contemporary space.
Like Taoist Qi, the life force that animates the world, her work reminds us that energy flows even through stillness—that what appears static is always becoming.
Wen lives and works in London. She holds a Masters degree in Photography from The Royal College of Art and a practice-led PhD in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.
Wen’s photography strives for resonance over realism. Much like Franz Gertsch, known for his large format photorealistic portraits and detailed studies of nature, her practice, though shaped through different means, arrives at a comparable synthesis between the mechanical and organic.
Wen Feiyi (b. 1990, Beijing) has been exhibited at Chanel Nexus Hall, Tokyo (2024); Serchia Gallery, Bristol (2023); Cairn Gallery, Scotland (2021); the Academy of Visual Art, Hong Kong (2019); Aperture Gallery, New York (2019); ONCA Gallery and Outdoor Hub, Brighton (2018); Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing (2018); Cosmos Arles Book, Arles (2018); and The Slade School of Fine Art, London (2018). Earlier presentations include Fabrica, Brighton (2017); Photo Oxford, Oxford (2017); Roaming ROOM, London (2017); Industria Superstudios, Brooklyn, New York (2016); SPACE 22 Gallery, Seoul (2016); Exeter Phoenix, Exeter (2016); CAFA Library, Beijing (2015); OBJECTIFS, Singapore (2015); Photo Shanghai, Shanghai (2015); Gucang Contemporary Photo Gallery, Lanzhou (2015); and Tate Britain, London (2014).
Images courtesy the artist and Albion Jeune
Photography by Tom Carter
The Untitled, 2025
Giclée on rice paper
90 x 78 cm (unframed)
92 x 80 x 4.5 cm (framed)
Edition of 5 plus 1 artist’s proof
The Untitled, 2025
Giclée on rice paper
90 x 76 cm (unframed)
92 x 77 x 4.5 cm (framed)
Edition of 5 plus 1 artist’s proof
The Untitled, 2025
Giclée on rice paper
90 x 76 cm (unframed)
92 x 77 x 4.5 cm (framed)
Edition of 5 plus 1 artist’s proof
The Untitled, 2025
Giclée on rice paper
105 x 70 cm (unframed)
107 x 72 x 4.5 cm (framed)
Edition of 5 plus 1 artist’s proof
The Untitled, 2025
Giclée on rice paper
105 x 70 cm (unframed)
107 x 72 x 4.5 cm (framed)
Edition of 5 plus 1 artist’s proof
The Untitled, 2025
Giclée on rice paper
105 x 70 cm (unframed)
107 x 72 x 4.5 cm (framed)
Edition of 5 plus 1 artist’s proof
The Untitled , 2025
Giclée on rice paper
80 x 53 cm (unframed)
82 x 55 x 4 cm (framed)
Edition of 5 plus 1 artist’s proof
The Untitled, 2024
Giclée on rice paper
105 x 80 (unframed)
107 x 82 x 4.5 cm (framed)
Edition of 5 plus 1 artist’s proof
The Untitled, 2025
Giclée on rice paper
105 x 70 cm (unframed)
107 x 72 x 4.5 cm (framed)
Edition of 5 plus 1 artist’s proof
The Untitled, 2025
Giclée on rice paper
80 x 53 cm (unframed)
82 x 55 x 4 cm (framed)
Edition of 5 plus 1 artist’s proof
