MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: QUAD

Birmingham Central Library has bought 30 photographs by Photographer Zhang Xiao, from QUAD in Derby.

Chinese artist Zhang Xiao was spotted in Chongqing by QUAD Curator Louise Clements on a visit to QUAD in 2008. As a result, Zhang Xiao first exhibited in the UK as part of the Derby based FORMAT International Photography Festival in 2009.

Birmingham Central Library holds one of the UK’s national collections of photography, so the sale of Zhang Xiao’s work adds to FORMAT’s position as an innovative and authoritative festival of photography.

Louise Clements, QUAD’s Senior Curator, said

“Zhang Xiao is a courageous young photographer living in Chongqing, China. His images, with their vignetting and subtle colours, document a Chinese culture in the midst of social and economic change.

"Recording and combining images of the lives of older generations with the everyday activity of young people, his series subtly combine nostalgic reference and politicisation in their exploration of the contradictions and collisions within life in contemporary China.

"We are really proud that this selection of Xiao's work will be included in the Birmingham National Collection of Photography, enabling his work to be properly preserved, documented and accessible in a significant collection here in the UK.”

Since FORMAT09, Zhang Xiao has exhibited in Germany, featured in Foto8 and has been selected for the Three Shadows Photography Award in Beijing, which recognises artists giving new meaning to Chinese contemporary photography, using different approaches and techniques. The Three Shadows Photography Award winner will be announced in April 2010.

Birmingham are making plans to have an exhibition by Zhang Xiao in 2011. Pete James, Head of Photographs at Birmingham Central Library, said “We are delighted to have been able to acquire this extraordinary body of work which has many resonances with historical and contemporary images already in the collection.”

The next FORMAT International Photography Festival, entitled Street Photography: Right Here, Right Now, will take place in QUAD and throughout Derby from 4rd March to 3rd April 2011. For more information about please go to www.formatfestival.com

For more information about QUAD, including current exhibitions, please visit their website here.

For more information about the Three Shadows Photography Award, please visit the Three Shadows website here.

For more information about the Birmingham Collection visit their website here.