Two new skateboarding photo shows: Chinese & Central Asian culture, Aug 15–Sep 6 at Fotografiska Shanghai. RMB80-100 covers all exhibits, open 10.30am-11pm.
Tags:It highlights how photography goes beyond documenting skate scenes to actively construct their cultural imagination—forging transgenerational icons, myths, and collective identities.
From August 15 to September 6, Fotografiska Shanghai and Nike SB will also jointly present two special projects: Making a Scene: Inside China's Skate Culture and Hailun Ma’s solo exhibition Almaty Skate Girls, showcasing photography’s role in cultivating local skate culture and its emerging expressions in Central Asian cities.
Special Projects
Making a Scene | Inside China's Skate Culture
Making a Scene: Inside China's Skate Culture presents the distinct creative practices of five photographers—James Andanson, wangchenweiii, Owen Yu, NankingJoe, and Rawyee Hwang—illustrating how photography actively constructs, enriches, and extends local skateboarding culture.
Skateboarding is more than a sport—it is an interconnected culture of visual arts, music, fashion, and lifestyle that continuously breeds diverse creativity.
It concerns not only the execution of a trick, but also the establishment of a uniquely street-oriented way of seeing.
While skaters reimagine and reinterpret the possibilities of their environment, photographers translate these spontaneous street moments into images.
Where these two creative forces collide on site, skate photography becomes—from its very inception—something much deeper than mere documentation.
Kyle Ke, Shenzhen, 2024 © Owen Yu
Where the main exhibition Skate of the Art situates skateboarding within a expansive visual and cultural context, this China section focuses squarely on the creative practices of five individual photographers.
From the earliest known skate archival footage in China to the ongoing exploration of diverse urban landscapes and terrains; from the regional bonds and friendships forged through countless tours to the intergenerational legacy passed down among photographers—these varied lived experiences and ways of seeing weave together a visual trajectory spanning nearly 50 years of Chinese skate culture.
Until Sep 6
Daily, 10.30am-11pm
RMB80-100, ticket covers all ongoing exhibitions in Fotografiska Shanghai
Almaty Skate Girls | Hailun Ma
Almaty Skate Girls, a solo exhibition by photographer Hailun Ma, focuses on a group of young female skateboarders in Almaty, Kazakhstan, documenting how skateboarding has become part of their everyday lives for friendship, self-expression, and connection to the city.
Untitled, 2026 © Hailun Ma
Ma’s practice has long explored youth culture, identity, and the relationship between individuals and place.
In this series, she turns her camera towards everyday moments: girls skating together, waiting for friends, sharing food, exchanging glances, or simply talking on the street.
The series also pays close attention to clothing and gesture. In Ma’s photographs, clothing is part of the girls’ everyday language of expressing individuality and shaping a sense of identity.
Untitled, 2026 © Hailun Ma
Almaty Skate Girls continues Ma’s ongoing interest in the lives and cultural expressions of younger generations.
Through images rooted in streets, communities, and everyday encounters, the series traces the connections between the girls and the city of Almaty, recording how they blend cross-regional cultural influences into their own living language.
Click below to get your tickets now:
Until Sep 6
Daily, 10.30am-11pm
RMB80-100, ticket covers all ongoing exhibitions in Fotografiska Shanghai
Ongoing Shows
Skate of the Art | Skateboarding Across Cultures
Skate of the Art: Skateboarding Across Cultures is a major group exhibition that redefines skateboarding not merely as a sport, but as a global visual and cultural language.
The Concrete Swell, Viper Bowl, Hollywood, CA, 1976 © Hugh Holland (USA)
The show traces the culture’s evolution from the sun-drenched empty pools of 1970s California to the dynamic streets of contemporary cities worldwide.
From the series Imilla Skate, Bolivia, 2021 © Luisa Dörr (Brazil)
Featuring over 20 photographers from five continents—including iconic figures like Hugh Holland and Ed Templeton, alongside global documentarians such as Luisa Dörr and local Chinese artists like Jedi Zhou and Jeff Yiu—the exhibition charts skateboarding’s migration and its adaptation across diverse cultures.
When the Earth Seems to Be Light 10, Tiflis, 2013 © David Meskhi (Georgia)
Highlights include the historic image of Danny Way jumping the Great Wall and intimate portraits of communities from Bolivia to Beijing.
Landing Ramp, China, 2005 © Mike Blabac (USA)
Beyond photography, the exhibition integrates multimedia installations and street-textured environments to create an immersive experience.
Xiao Wu, Shanghai, from the series Skater&Room, 2020 © Wan Yize (China)
As a cultural partnership with Nike SB, the show extends beyond the gallery with public programs, celebrating how the camera lens has not only documented but actively shaped skate culture.
Rooftop Landscape, Marcus, Saizhi, Brian, Per, Shanghai, 2018 © Jedi Zhou (China)
It is an invitation to explore the freedom, creativity, and cross-cultural dialogue that define this enduring global youth movement.
The small park behind home practice, Ngari District, Tibet, from the series 1000 Miles, 2016 © Terry Xie (China)
Click below to get your tickets now:
Until Oct 25
Daily, 10.30am-11pm
RMB80-100, ticket covers all ongoing exhibitions in Fotografiska Shanghai
Robert Zhao Renhui | Trying to Remember a Tree
Trying to Remember a Tree is a contemplative solo exhibition by Singaporean artist Robert Zhao Renhui—the representative for the Singapore Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Robert Zhao Renhui, 2023. Image courtesy of the Artist
The show centers on the complete lifecycle of a single fallen rain tree, transforming overlooked urban debris into a profound meditation on nature, memory, and human perception.
Through five interconnected bodies of work—spanning photography, moving image, surveillance footage, and installation—Zhao presents the meticulous documentation of 28,017 individual leaves, severed trunk fragments, and 24-hour monitoring of the tree's decomposition.
Every Tree is Its Own Universe © Robert Zhao Renhui
In modern cities, dead trees are routinely cleared as waste; Zhao's patient observation reclaims these remnants, inviting us to truly attend rather than merely see.
His guiding axiom—"without looking at a tree, there is no forest"—grounds the exhibition in a micro-level focus that resists grand ecological narratives in favor of intimate, grounded encounters.
Every Tree is its Own Universe © Robert Zhao Renhui
Running until November 6, 2026, the exhibition asks viewers to slow down and reconnect with the vital, often invisible entanglements between urban life and the natural world.
It is a quiet but powerful reminder that remembering a single tree might be the first step toward remembering our shared ecosystem.
The Centre of All Things © Robert Zhao Renhui
Click below to get your tickets now:
Until Nov 6
Daily, 10.30am-11pm
RMB80-100, ticket covers all ongoing exhibitions in Fotografiska Shanghai
Thomas Sauvin | Beijing Silvermine: Archive Anthology
Thomas Sauvin's Beijing Silvermine: Archive Anthology celebrates 15 years of one of the world's most important vernacular photography archives.
Curated by Holly Roussell, the exhibition brings together over 1,500 salvaged 35mm negatives, books, installations, and collaborative artworks.
The archive originated from a recycling plant on the outskirts of Beijing, where Sauvin rescued millions of anonymous film negatives destined for silver extraction.
These images document Chinese daily life from the Reform and Opening-Up period to the early 2000s—capturing aspirations, wedding rituals, and material culture in a rapidly changing society.
The exhibition unfolds across four sections: a monumental archive installation, a reconstruction of Sauvin's studio, a tribute to the cult photobook Until Death Do Us Part, and collaborations with artists including Lei Lei and Kensuke Koike.
Reflecting Fotografiska's mission to inspire new perspectives, the show demonstrates how images made to record ordinary life can acquire profound cultural meaning long after their original context has faded.
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Until Oct 18
Daily, 10.30am-11pm
RMB80-100, ticket covers all ongoing exhibitions in Fotografiska Shanghai
Tony Oursler | mAcHiNe CrYsTaL
American multimedia artist Tony Oursler presents mAcHiNe CrYsTaL, a major solo exhibition now on view at Fotografiska Shanghai.
The show features large-scale immersive optical installations created specifically for the space, using crystal as a medium to bridge natural geometry, digital technology, and artificial intelligence.
At the heart of the exhibition is a sculptural arrangement of faceted crystal structures that function as both physical objects and dynamic projection surfaces.
Multicolored digital imagery—including live-action footage, hand-drawn animations, and AI-generated content—reflects and refracts across the crystals, creating a constantly shifting perceptual field that changes with the viewer's position.
Inspired by crystalline formations in nature and the role of crystals as the synchronized "heartbeat" of digital devices, Oursler asks whether technology can lead audiences back to nature.
Click below to get your tickets now:
Until Sep 13
Daily, 10.30am-11pm
RMB80-100, ticket covers all ongoing exhibitions in Fotografiska Shanghai
Fotografiska Shanghai
Fotografiska, the Contemporary Museum of Photography, Art, and Culture, was founded in Stockholm with a strong commitment to showcasing thought-provoking and cutting-edge visual art.
Fotografiska champions talents from diverse backgrounds, both locally and internationally, fostering a dynamic and inclusive artistic community.
Fotografiska Shanghai offers a captivating program of carefully curated exhibitions, events, concerts, workshops, and talks with a strong focus on the promotion of Chinese and Asian artists.
It is complemented by on-site lifestyle venues including a gelateria, a terrace café and bar, as well as a rooftop lounge restaurant across its four floors.
The museum extends its opening hours to 11pm, allowing visitors to explore and engage with the museum's offerings.
Fotografiska Shanghai, 127 Guangfu Lu, by Jinyuan Lu, Jing'an District 光复路127号, 近晋元路
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[Cover image courtesy of Fotografiska Shanghai/Jocko Weyland and Agence Presse Sygma]
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