Andrea Meislin Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of The Other Half of the Sky, Lili Almog’s second solo exhibition with the Gallery. The Other Half of the Sky is a series of photographic and video portraits drawn from a larger project several years in the making. The series is fully illustrated in a book published by powerHouse April 2009 with essay by Richard Vine. An opening reception for the artist will be held on May 2nd from 4 – 6 pm.

The Other Half of the Sky showcases images of women in the countryside, small cities, and villages of China, with an emphasis on the extraordinary situation of Muslim women and matriarchal societies in the country. The title, The Other Half of the Sky, was inspired by a quote from Mao Zedong. Mao remarked, “women hold up half the sky,” essentially proclaiming an end to the centuries of inequality faced by women in China. As Almog’s portraits indicate, however, women in these outer geographic and economic reaches of the country have not always experienced a quality of life equal to their male counterparts.

Almog’s subtle artistry powerfully emerges through each image, as the viewer slowly understands the subject’s circumstances. The images are deliberate and evocative without being overstated. In her travels in China, Almog clearly engages in a two-way dialogue with her subjects and preserves each person’s dignity under her scrutiny. Effortlessly balancing sociological cataloguing and aesthetically moving photographs, The Other Half of the Sky recognizes a group of women who often go unseen in contemporary Chinese society. The result is a deeply moving and beautiful body of work.

Lili Almog’s photographic practice has centered on the depiction of women and their private lives. Almog, an Israeli artist living and working in New York, published her first book with powerHouse in 2006, Perfect Intimacy, featuring portraits of cloistered nuns. Since that time, Almog has traveled to China extensively working with and photographing women in rural and isolated areas.

Lili Almog’s work has been exhibited internationally for over ten years, including exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, the Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography, Turner Falls, MA and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel. Her work is included in several public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.