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Beijing's best art galleries part 5: Three Shadows Photography Art Centre

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As Beijing's modern art scene continues to surge into the limelight, the number of its galleries keeps apace. As with any city with a massive art scene, the quality of art you can find ranges from jaw-droppingly phenomenal to stomach-churningly terrible. CRI's William Wang takes you on a tour to galleries which showcase high caliber art, art which impresses via its subtleties, shock-value, craftsmanship or… inaccessibility.

The peaceful courtyard of Three Shadows Photography Art Centre. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com/William Wang]

Three Shadows Photography Art Centre

Tourists and wedding photo crews may flock to the ever more commercialized 798 Art District, but a lesser known art district just minutes away squarely maintains a focus on the arts. Caochangdi translates to "grasslands" which today may be hyperbole, but the area which is home to over ten galleries and the China National Film Museum is a comparatively peaceful place to visit and an excellent environment to contemplate the underbelly of the arts.

Three Shadows Photography Art Centre has been one of Caochangdi's driving forces since it first opened its doors. Founded by a husband and wife who were both professional photographers, and housed in a complex designed by one of China's most prominent artists, Three Shadows was China's first privately operated art gallery with a specific focus on photography.

Three Shadows' art director Mao Weidong recalled the first days of the centre. "Originally we just wanted to establish a library for photography. Just a library! But now it's a large space for photographic arts. All of our activities are focused on photography, not other media…. We know that maybe if we did other contemporary arts we could make a lot more money, but our interest is just in this."

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