Lin Zhipeng (林志鹏), aka No.223

Lin Zhipeng (aka No.223) Born in Guangdong, China in 1979, Graduated from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies with major of financial English. Lin Zhipeng is a photographer and freelancer writer based in Beijing. Created in 2003, his blog “North Latitude 23” where he published everyday pictures accompanied by short texts received millions views and made him famous among the web community. Presented for years in group exhibitions in China and abroad , Lin’s works have also been the object of several solo shows both nationally and internationally ( Delaware Contemporary Museum ; Walther Collection Ulm ; De Sarthe Gallery Beijing ; Stieglitz19 Gallery Antwerp ; M97 Gallery Shanghai, etc). He has published photography books in China, France, Canada, Japan and Italy.

Lin is a leading figure of new Chinese photography emerging in the last decade, popularizing his work originally via social media and other online platforms as well as his self-published zines. Lin’s work has come to reflect and define a certain zeitgeist of the post-80’s and 90’s generation of non-mainstream Chinese youth. Faded flowers tangled with flesh tones, myriad patterns mixing with an emotional ambiguity of both love and chaos, fantasy and eroticism. 223’s works are saturated with a soft sense of carefreeness, a playful innocence, and a certain optimism amidst a hedonist lifestyle going against the expected pleasures and entrapments of the middle class dream.

With Lin Zhipeng, everything is tinged with a resolutely pop seduction. The colour, the shapes, the textures, the framing used are all symptomatic of a visual culture rocked by the flow of images, bodies and symbols that have marked our entry into the second millennium. Far from the traditional and unconstructive criticism of an "overconsumption" or "saturation" of images, those of the artist celebrate the vitality of his generation, starting with the staging of his life and that of his entourage. Mixing love and chaos, fantasy and eroticism, his photographs act as the collective poetic diary of a generation eager to escape social pressures and to aspire to the pleasures of life in a society that is as indifferent as it is rapidly evolving.




Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023
2023 Mysterious SkinMysterious Skin, Stieglitz19 Gallery, Antwerp (Belgium)
Boys Boys Boys, Migrant Bird Space, Berlin (Germany)
We have no purity in the dark, Kitsuné Gallery, New York (USA)

2022
Colors of Love, Represented by in)(between, RASTOLL Gallery, Paris / Sinibaldi Galerie, Arles (France)
Colors of Love, Represented by in)(between, Galeria Cadaques, Cadaques (Spain)

2021
Polaroids, Stieglitz19 Gallery, Antwerp (Belgium)

2020
Satellite of Love 愛，放衛星, Canton-Sadine, Vancouver (Canada)
A Savage Affection 以蛮为情, Solonia Art Center, Suzhou (China)

2019
Amphibian Relationships 两栖关系 - No.223@The Delaware Contemporary, Delaware (USA)
No.223@Akio Nagasawa Gallery Aoyama, Tokyo (Japan)
No.223@The Walther Collection feats Then And Now, The Walther Collection, Neu Ulm (Germany)
No.223@in)(between, in)(between Gallery, Paris (France)

2018
No.223@Grand Amour, Grand Amour Hotel, Paris (France)
223@Stieglitz19, Stieglitz19 Gallery, Antwerp (Belgium)

2017
No.223@M97, M97 Gallery, Shanghai (China)

2016
No.223, de Sarthe Beijing Gallery, Beijing (China)
Hidden Track, Stieglitz19 Gallery, Antwerp (Belgium)

2014
223, Loppis Galleria, Parma (Italy)
青红皂白 Velvet Pogo, Kui Yuan Gallery, Guangzhou (China)

2013
蜜桃 The Peaches, ATTIC, Taipei

2008
我派对 Me Party, Songzhuang Art Museum, Beijing (China)
时光成分 Composition In Time, GZOP Lab, Guangzhou (China)




Selected Group Exhibitions

2024
你的你 Their Them, Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum, Chengdu (China)
Cook My Book — Refresh My Mind, Dr Fanton Arles (France)
selbst，boa-basedonart Gallery, Düsseldorf (Germany)
“What We Are”, de Sarthe Gallery, Hongkong (China)

2023
(In)directions: Queerness in Chinese Contemporary Photography, Eli Klein Gallery, NewYork (USA)
"Each,Other", Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane (Australia)
Love Songs, ICP, NewYork (USA)
中間地帯 interface, ARTiX3, Tokyo (Japan)

2022
I Have Not Loved (enough or worked), Art Gallery of Western Australia (Australia)
WHO AM I? I AM. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, (Germany)
Love Songs, MEP Paris, Paris (France)
223 & Ren Hang, Stieglitz19 Gallery, Brussels (Belgium)

2021
Signs of The Times, Apalazzo Gallery, Brescia (Italy)

2020
可能的往事 Possible Past, Star Gallery, Beijing (China)
丰收 / 尖果儿 Harvest / Hanging Fruit, M97 Gallery, Shanghai (China)
自如的绑票与疗愈的暗示, M Studio, Beijing (China)
Chamber of: , Lou Carter Gallery, Paris (France)
China Fever, Migrant Bird Space, Berlin (Germany)
The Farm, K11 Art Foundation, Shenyang (China)

2019
I AM (AT WAR) IN LOVE WITH THE OBVIOUS, The Address Gallery, Brescia (Italy)
Chinese Spring Part 4, Stieglitz19 Gallery, Antwerp (Belgium)
對流 Convection, Art Tai Space, Hohhot (China)

2018
EL CUERPO REINTERPRETADO, NUE Gallerie, Valencia (Spain)
十方 Ten Directions: 三影堂摄影奖十周年特展 The 10th Anniversary Exhibition of The Three Shadows Photography Award,Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing (China)
Chinese Spring #3, Stieglitz19 Gallery，Antwerp (Belgium)
知尚 A nous la mode! , Temple Beijing / Bailian Centre Shanghai / Three Shadows Xiamen / Chengdu Museum (China)

2017
世界切片 The World Section, Xi'an Art Museum, Xi'an (China)
PHOTOSYNTHESIS, M97 Gallery, Shanghai (China)
诗 Poem, Zhong Gallery, Beijing (China)

2016
遇见森山大道 Meet Daido Moriyama, Aoman Space, Beijing (China)
坦白·猝不及防的九场自拍实验 Illuminate Your Beauty, UCCA, Beijing (China)
BredaPhoto International Photofestival, Breda (Netherlands)

2015
Teetering at The Edge of The World-Reading the Chinese Contemporary, Espacio de Arte Contemporeáno (EAC), Montevideo (Uruguay)
This is not China anymore, GuatePhoto International Photography Festival, Antigua (Guatemala)
图像新潮 Coming Image, curated by LEAP, Photo shanghai (China)
首届长江国际影像双年展 Changjiang International Image Biennale, Chongqing (China)

2014
Collab#1 curated by Now&Them, The Gallery，Shanghai (China)
No.223, 10th Lianzhou International Photography Festival, Lianzhou (China)
XXX, BANK Gallery, Shanghai (China)
Chinese spring #2, Stieglitz19 Gallery, Antwerp (Belgium)

2013
Unseen Photo Fair, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
不合作方式2 FUCK OFF 2, Groninger Museum (Netherlands)
Exposure, London Gallery West (UK)
平等的关系 Equal Relationships, Blindspot Gallery, Hongkong.

2012
宓爱 Secret Love，OSTASIATISKA MUSEET Skeppsholmen (Sweden)
每一天 Everyday, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai (China)
Unspecified Urban Site, RH Gallery, NewYork (USA)
ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE, White Gloss Gallery. Los Angels (USA)
I have also other favorites, Stacion Gallery, Prishtina (Turkish)

2011
蚯蚓-连州国际摄影节 Earthworm, Lianzhou Foto 2011 (China)
白痴 dAfT，Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai (China)
Chinese Spring #1, Stieglitz19 Gallery, Antwerp (Belgium)
Boys' Little World，ZEN FOTO Gallery,Tokyo (Japan)
一重影事 Recurrent Shadows, Hexiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen (China)
万相 MYRIAD VISIONS, Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing (China)
Art Amsterdam 2011 (Netherlands)
GTZ Photography Workshop 2011, Berlin, (Germany)

2010
5PRCITY, United Nude Miami, Miami (USA)
Get It Louder Exhibition, touring exhibition, venues in Shanghai & Beijing (China)
首届集美国际当代艺术节 The First International Contemporary Art Festival of China Jimei, Xiamen (China)
草场地摄影季 Caochangdi Photo Spring 2010: ARLES IN BEIJING, Beijing (China)
Box II: The Cruelty of Youth, White Space Collection, New York City (USA)

2009
LINEART Fair at Flanders Expo Gent (Belgium)
China Now –The Edge of Desire, Max Lang Gallery, New York (USA)
我,我见 I, I SEE－ Southern Pocket Film festival, Guangzhou (China)

2008
连州国际摄影节 Youth Appearance, 4th Lianzhou International Photography Festival, Lianzhou (China)
变形记 Metamorphosis, Art Scene China, Shanghai (China)
潜活:公寓日志 Hidden Life: Apartment Diary, Lin & Keng Gallery, Beijing (China)
FotoGrafia International Festival, Rome (Italy)
New Photography In China, City Festival (Hong Kong)

2007
抽样 Sampling: Chinese Young Photographers, Potential Gallery, Beijing (China)
刷新 Refresh: Emerging Chinese Artists, touring exhibition, ZendaiMoMA, Shanghai, China; ARARIO Gallery, Beijing (China)
Get It Louder Exhibition, touring exhibition, venues in Guangzhou, Shanghai & Beijing (China)

2006
自私-连州国际摄影节 Selfhood – Absent Minded , First Lianzhou International Photography (China)

2005
平遥国际摄影节 Five New Generation Photographers, Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao (China)

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Bibliography
Queer Art, by Gemma Rolls-Bentley, Published by Quarto Group, UK, 2024.
Photography—A Queer History, by Flora Dunster&Theo Gordon, Published by iLex Press, UK, 2024
Skinny Wave - No.223, Published by Same Paper, China, 2023
Myriad of Things And Bodies, by Yining He, Foam Magazine #63 Food! Issue, 2023
LOVE SONGS, Published by MEP Paris, 2022
Rooms Within China, Published by Tofu Collective, 2021
123 Polaroids - No.223, Published by Super Labo, Japan, 2021
Grand Amour - No.223, Published by Witty Books, Italy, 2020
Xuan Juliana Wang: "223, Acts of Memory", Aperture, Issue 239, 2020
Flowers and Fruits - No.223, Published by T&M Projects, Japan, 2019
Sour Strawberries - No.223, Published by Editions Bessard Press, France, 2018
In Our Secret Life - No.223, Published by Hunan Literature & Art Press, 2016
Hidden Track - No.223, Published by Editions Bessard Press, France, 2016
屏幕生存 Living in Screens, by 海杰Haijie, China, 2016
ExtraExtra#7, Netherlands, 2016
Snoecks 2016, Snoecks nv, Belgium, 2016
Genda#1, a+mbookstore edizioni, Italy, 2016
GUP#43, Netherlands, 2014
Versatile#2, Self-published, Beijing, April 2014
(Documentary) China Through The Lens of Youth, NHK Japan, 2014
(Documentary) Emma Tassy, LA CHINE DANS L'OBJECTIF, ARTE France, 2013
Ubies, Asian Creatives, PIE International Inc. Tokyo, 2013
想象 Imagination, by 孙慧婷 Sun Huiting, China, 2013
Satellite of Love - No.223, Published by Guangming Daily Press, Beijing, 2012
Lili Chien, Artist's Show Case: No.223, Voices Of Photography, Taiwan, Jul/Aug 2012
Travis, The Simple Connection between Photography And Sexual, PPAPER, Taiwan, June 2012
No.223, Published by Revolution-star, Taiwan, May 2012
223, From China With Love, Bare Bones, London, Issue 9, 2012
Versatile#1, Self-published, Beijing, April 2012
Tristan Chen, "22.3 questions about No.223", Fashion China, China, Nov.2011
Mino, 'Intimate Bodies Through Lens, Surface, China, June 2011
My Private Broadway - 223's Photobook 3, Self Published, Beijing, 2011
Pinko, ‘Adolescence is the most creative periods’, The Outlook Magazine, China, July 2010
Nicki Xiao, ‘The Third Eye on Fashion’, Design 360°, Hong Kong, N.20, March 2009
Sarah Fakray, ‘New faces of Beijing’, Dazed&Confused, London, December, 2008
Xu Jinglei, ‘Lin Zhipeng Q&A’, Wallpaper.com, September 25, 2008
Cynthia, ‘Creative Forces in Beijing’, Milk, Hongkong, August, 2008
Joe Magliaro, ‘223’, Theme Magazine, New York, issue 11, fall, 2007
Jifan Wong & Cong, I like the city with a bit distance, Rice magazine, Guangzhou, July 2006
John Millichap (ed), 3030: New Photography in China, 3030 Press, Hong Kong, 2006
My Private Broadway - 223's photobook 2, self published, Guangzhou, 2006
My Private Broadway - 223's photobook 1, self published, Guangzhou, 2005

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223's visual style tenders a sort of diarist, gonzo photography, that necessitates not his participation in the shot, but rather the spectre of his sexual drives, which are channelled through the medium’s inherent subjectivity towards a shared cultural imago.
Each, Other: Pixy Liao and Lin Zhipeng, by Adam Ford, Lemonade Letters, 2023

Lin utilises the following strategies in his photographs: borrowing the shapes of natural foods to represent human organs, such as mushrooms, bananas, figs, etc. to discuss the relationship between natural objects and gender, using the interaction between the sitter and the food to add an ex- otic element to the photograph, and setting food as an ornament in the image to engage or challenge the viewer’s visual experience.
Myriad of Things And Bodies, by Yining He, Foam Magazine #63 Food! Issue, 2023

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Lin's work has been associated with the recent art-phenomenon of so-called ‘private photography’. But these are not really private images made public. They are co-created in the knowledge that they are to be shared, that they will become part of a pictorial polylogue that interconnects a generation on a global scale.
Lin Zhipeng / No.223: Open Intimacy, by Alasdair Foster, Talking Pictures, 2023

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In tandem with this nudity-made-banal, there is also a darkness, an allusion to making space for existing on the outskirts of traditional society, performed in the confines of the home, protected from the watchful eyes of conservatism. The subjects are either lit by the photographer’s flooding flash or illuminated by the natural light pouring through cracks in the drawn curtains. This isn’t girlboss feminism reclaiming the vagina. Instead, it’s risky, quiet, and queer.
Book Review: Flowers and Fruits, by Cat Lachowskyj, LesCulture.com

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Lin’s work reflects the post-1980s and 90s generation of non-mainstream Chinese youth, who test the limits of China’s conservative and traditional society.
"Forbidden fruits: the festival images you (almost) didn't see – in pictures", The Guardian, 10 Sep 2020

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223's images act as memory, a cadenced record of a life searching for things that intrigue him. He likes to be surprised, to find the numerous frequencies of existence to matter how mandane. A portrait might appear as a romantic overture, but then there is a turn. His point of view is set to the beautiful as well as to the grotesque, the ordinary, and the obscene.
"A Visual Record of Queer Experience in China" by Xuan Juliana Wang, Aperture Magazine Issue 239, 2020

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Lin’s pictures have come to reflect the hedonist lifestyle of a young generation wishing to escape the rigid social rules of mainstream Chinese society.
Metal Magazine, "Unfiltered access to an alternative youth", Tyler Lea, 16 July, 2019

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Revigorante et touchante, jamais dramatique, la photographie de Lin est pure émotion. Illuminée par un flash pénétrant, la nudité de ses sujets révèle à la fois leur émancipation et leur vulnérabilité. Lin ne planifie jamais ses séances, laissant place à la spontanéité et à l’improvisation.
Vanessa Humphries, Artistik Rezo, 8 Nov. 2018

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In disseminating these images online, Lin Zhipeng established an ever-expanding audience, which gravitated towards his alluring portrayals of seductively — cool — and largely hidden — Chinese youth culture.
Unseen Magazine Issue 5, 2018

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Lin Zhipeng's controversial subjects — exposed bodies, pubic hair, naked lovers intertwined — are censored in his native China, and challenge sexual taboo through their hedonistic liberation.
Harriet Shepherd, SLEEK, 28 Aug. 2018

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编号223的镜头中的身体更具有视觉突发性和时尚杂志的人物写真手法，从中窥见鲜艳的、放荡的、恶作剧却又显得专注的情感和心理写真。在编号223那里，悬疑，作为一种持续生效的视觉布局，被他普遍地用于自己的拍摄中。同时，作为一种去社会化语境的表述，编号223也在试图着力展示身体作为孤独和感伤的媒介属性。
《屏幕生存》，海杰 著，中国，2016

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I was taken by the work of Lin Zhipeng, a Chinese photographer who goes under the name No 223, and whose edgy, often erotic work is continually censored by the authorities. A former gas works housed a strange selection of undiscovered images, from sexy Chinese art censored by the authorities to a reworked West Side Story.
Sean O'Hagan, "A window on weird: step inside the Unseen Photo fair in Amsterdam" , theguardian.com, 2 Oct. 2013

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Blissfully young and tragically hip, 223 renders visible China’s seductive spaces of pain and pleasure and cool. The saturated colors and glistening bodies, inturn,map the dreamscape of a generation.
JamesValice，艺术界LEAP, April 2011

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Lin’s works, talk about the story about young, or should say about emotion. Emotion to a thing, to a person, to a story, brings out the inspiration, and directs his photographing motif. Technique is always behind. The key is the real feeling. If not being loved of doing one thing, one can only make it incondite and apathetic.
Nicki Xiao, “The Third “Eye” On Fashion”, Design 360° Magazine, Hong Kong, N.20, March 2009

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223’s works explore the new Chinese way of life, allowing the viewer a personal look inside the homes and hang-out spots of teenagers and young adults as they song, smoke, shower, get stoned or brush their teeth. Sometimes they’re naked, still something of a taboo here, but because No.223 self-publishes his photo book, he can fill them with whatever he likes.
Sarah Fakray , “New faces of Beijing”, Dazed&Confused Magazine, London, Issue Dec.2008

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归纳出223的作品主题是：私人派对snap shot，朋友之间刻意的凹造型，富电影剧照感的pose与个别躯体特写。在这些照片之中，“演出”的成分极高，被摄者似乎都有渴望被拍的意识，并且会随 手拈来不同的现实道具。顾铮曾评价223的作品没有“通过摄影区别自己与他人的野心”，欧宁则评价“他们不太关心外面的世界，只是沉溺在自我的放纵里，甚至有一点点反智的倾向”。但无论如何，他们都不能否定223的重要性。
《潮爆中国》, 李照兴 著, 香港, 2008
Chic China Chic, by Bono Lee, Hong Kong, 2008

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“Lin’s Works vividly reveal the milieu of the present young generation, which is characterized with a kind of imaginary and whimsical self-entertainment. This is a state of life characterized with consumption, in which they consume both fashion and themselves. He likes to snap the “primary beauty”. This highlighted sense of existential beauty of consuming and being consumed, detached from traditional culture and social common value, is both personal and international – like the web, which is both exhilarating and horrifying.”
栗宪庭 Li Xianting, Me Party, exhibition catalogue, Songzhuang Art Museum, Beijing, July, 2008.

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Lin, a former magazine editor at Guangzhou’s entertainment tabloid Modern Weekly, named himself “No. 223” after the lovelorn cop played by Takeshi Kaneshiro in Wong Kar-wai’s cult classicChungking Express. A voracity for international fashion mags led No. 223 to begin snapping his own portraits, turning a Lomo on his circle of friends. Their friendship and desire to see themselves as a part of a global youth culture allowed Lin to capture images that would have been difficult to imagine coming out of China in the not-too-distant past. “A lot of my friends do creative things, so they are probably more open than most. This allows me to photograph them the way I do. They understand what I’m doing,” says Lin.
Magliaro, Joe, ‘223’, Theme Magazine, New York, issue 11, fall, 2007

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“Lin’s works typically have a rough-and-ready feel in which photographic technique is frequently neglected for the sake of compelling immediacy. His subjects seem content to reject all responsibility in pursuit of all-night parties and fashionable indolence.”
欧宁 Ou Ning, “New Photography and the Media Industry in Guangzhou” in John Millichap, ed., 3030: New Photography in China, Published by 3030 Press, Hongkong, 2006