Zane Mellupe

Zane Mellupe is an artist and sinologist, born in 1981 in Lithuania. She has been interested in photography since the age of 14. While focusing on this passion, she began studying Chinese at Lithuania University. She decided to move to China in 2001 and joined the Academy of theater in Shanghai but also the Shanghai university, where she studied the language and Chinese literature. She graduated in 2004. Zane Mellupe continued her studies in U.K, at the Arts University of London and did a masters in photo-journalism and photo-documentary. She lives and works in Shanghai currently.

Once she finished her studies in 2007, she became the artistic director of Island6 Arts Center of Shanghai. She created « Yongkang Lu Art » in 2010, a street art community in Shanghai.

Photography is a means for Zane Mellupe, to think in images. Her work in fact questions the function of photography in itself. The object, body and image are the three ways through which human emotions are conveyed. The artist tries to mix these three elements, to put up a smokescreen and question the photos she exhibits. The body becomes the object and the object that is freed from the image, moves back and forth constantly, between reality and perception.
The artist wants to portray meaningful work. Zane Mellupe includes a social dimension in her creation, with a view to constantly communicate with the spectator.

Zane Mellupe exhibits her work regularly in China and Europe. The Ifa gallery has been representing her since 2010.