The Italian Cultural Institute is pleased to present the event Substance, Shadow, Spirit. Working in the Landscape, an evening dedicated to the art of the American photographer Lois Conner, on Wednesday, 25 February at 7:00 p.m.
Lois Conner is an artist widely recognized for her landscape photography, made with a panoramic banquet camera. Born in New York City, she studied at Pratt Institute and later earned her MFA from Yale University, where she later taught. Over the course of her career, she has combined artistic practice with teaching, exhibiting internationally while receiving significant honors, fellowships and Museum exhibitions.
A central thread in her work is her deep and enduring connection with China. In 1984, on a Guggenheim Fellowship, she went to live in Yangshuo,to photograph the karst landscape that Chinese artists, poets, writers had pictured for thousands of years. To reflect and give that work context, she also began traveling slowly through the country, inspired by history, paintings, and recommendations from the people she met. After her 1984-85 fellowship period, she began returning yearly. In 1988, while living at Beijing University, she began working at Yuanming Yuan.
She has photographed historic monuments, imperial architecture, and rapidly changing urban environments, while also making specific trips down the Yangtze River and across the Silk Route.
Her images go beyond documentation; they reflect a thoughtful engagement with Chinese history and culture, capturing the tension between tradition and modern transformation.
At the core of her practice is a profound dedication to landscape photography. Conner produces elongated, immersive compositions that give the viewer a sense of what the landscape includes beyond the peripheral view. Whether photographing in China or the American West, Conner approaches the landscape as a space where history, culture, and nature co verge. Her subject is “Landscape as Culture”.
The exhibition dedicated to the influential Italian architect Andrea Palladio, at the National Museum of China, features a series of photographs by Lois Conner made of Palladian architecture in Venice and throughout the Verona area of Italy from 2024-2025. Her work is exhibited alongside important historical materials, relating Palladian architecture with the landscape and with time, highlighting the persistence and relevance of its presence in contemporary space.
The artist will speak about her work in China and the Palladian architecture project, with references to her work in the American and Italian landscapes.
“Landscape as it embraces history is my subject. I am an obsessive collector and observer of landscapes. What I am trying to reveal through photography on a deliberate, yet subtle way, is a sense of time passing. I want my photographs to describe my relationship to both the visible and the imagined, to fact and fiction.” (Lois Conner)
The event will be held entirely in English.