Lin Zhipeng at Saint Laurent Rive Droite, Beijing

Chinese photographer Lin Zhipeng, also known as No. 223, presents a new exhibition at Saint Laurent Rive Droite in Beijing, presented in collaboration with Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello, no less. The exhibition brings together photographs from Zhipeng’s archive, focusing on themes of intimacy, desire, youth and the everyday. It’s hot!

Zhipeng is known for his candid photographs of friends, lovers and people within his immediate surroundings. Working primarily with analogue photography, his images combine portraits and still lifes with a spontaneous approach to composition. The work often moves between documentary and more constructed images, with the personal remaining central to both.

For Rive Droite, Zhipeng and Vaccarello have selected a group of photographs that reflect the artist’s longstanding interest in the relationship between the body and the natural world. Flowers, fruit and plants appear alongside portraits and images of bodies, creating visual connections between sexuality and memory. Simply beautiful and sometimes reminiscent of the work of Ren Hang.

The exhibition is presented in connection with Qixi, the traditional Chinese festival associated with love and relationships. Rather than approaching the theme through conventional representations of romance, the curation focuses on the informal and intimate moments that characterise Zhipeng’s photography.

Light and colour are important elements throughout the work. Zhipeng has spoken about his attraction to warm light and the atmosphere of southern China, where he grew up. His work has a distinctive character, with the analog retaining the grain, colour shifts and imperfections of the medium.

The decision to present the work at Saint Laurent Rive Droite also places Zhipeng’s photography within Vaccarello’s broader programme of collaborations across art, photography, design, music and contemporary culture. Since its development as a cultural platform, Rive Droite has been used by Saint Laurent to present projects that extend beyond the traditional fashion context. The brand’s cultural reach is increasing.

For Zhipeng, the photographs remain rooted in personal experience. Friends, relationships and familiar surroundings provide the subjects, while the analogue process gives the images their particular visual character. Rive Droite brings these different aspects of his practice together in a presentation that considers intimacy not as a fixed subject, but as something documented through everyday encounters.

Lin Zhipeng: Rive Droite is on view at Saint Laurent Rive Droite Beijing, N2 Taikoo Li Sanlitun, Chaoyang District, Beijing, running until 11 September 2026.

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