FQM is pleased to announce that Michael Cherney will present his solo exhibition, Michael Cherney: Middle Distance, at UCCA Beijing from January 17 to April 12, 2026.
Since the mid-1990s, Cherney has worked primarily in photography, capturing and preserving fleeting moments in nature over the past three decades. With a background in East Asian studies, Cherney frequently draws inspiration from classical Chinese literature and art history, revisiting historic locations as a means of exploring the eternal within the cyclical nature of time.
This solo exhibition brings together several key series by Cherney, encompassing themes that range from the micro to the macro, from historical relics to natural landscapes. The presentation will include works in various traditional formats, such as handscrolls, albums, and hanging scrolls, offering a multidimensional view of Cherney’s long-standing engagement with moving perspective and traditional aesthetics.
Pan zi hua from Ten Thousand Li of the Yangtze River Series, 25.5 × 126 cm
One of the significant works in the exhibition is the first large-scale presentation of Ten Thousand Li of the Yangtze River, created between 2010 and 2015. Inspired by a Song-dynasty scroll of the same name, this series was captured during an important period of industrial development in China. The shifting landscapes along the Yangtze spans from remote mountains in the west to urban industrial zones in the east of China. As such, the series becomes a rare visual archive of a transformative era.
The exhibition is curated by Jiashu Zou, Assistant Curator at UCCA.
