TOILETPAPER

Fotografiska Shenzhen Opens with TOILETPAPER’s First Exhibition in China, ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska. Enter the surreal universe of TOILETPAPER, where photography, design and imagination collide.

On 1 October 2026, Fotografiska Shenzhen, the fifth location of the global photography and visual arts destination Fotografiska, will open its doors to the public. Marking the opening season, Italian creative studio TOILETPAPER will present its first exhibition in China, ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska.

Previously exhibited at Fotografiska Stockholm and Fotografiska Berlin, ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska transforms TOILETPAPER’s instantly recognisable imagery into an immersive environment where photography, installation, design and spatial elements come together. The exhibition invites visitors into a world where everyday objects are transformed, familiar references become unexpected, and reality is constantly rearranged.

TOILETPAPER: A Distinctive Language of Images

Founded in 2010 by Italian contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari, TOILETPAPER began as a picture-only publication exploring the possibilities of photography, humour and visual experimentation. Over the years, it has grown into a multidisciplinary creative studio working across photography, publishing, design, installation, interiors and collaborations.

Known for its bold colours, surreal compositions and playful approach to imagery, TOILETPAPER creates photographs that exist between art, advertising and popular culture. Rather than capturing the world as it appears, the studio constructs its own realities—ones that are humorous, provocative and often slightly unsettling.

Each work begins with an idea. Through elaborate set construction, handcrafted props, styling and meticulous production, TOILETPAPER turns imagined scenarios into physical scenes before capturing them through photography. Many of the studio’s most recognisable images, from floating lobsters and oversized body parts to flower-covered figures and seas of bananas, are created through real-world production rather than digital manipulation.

This carefully staged approach has become central to TOILETPAPER’s practice. By borrowing the polished aesthetics of commercial photography while disrupting its familiar language of desire and consumption, the studio creates images that are immediately attractive yet impossible to fully decode. Everyday symbols and objects are displaced, repeated and transformed, creating a tension between humour and discomfort, familiarity and surprise.

ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska: From Image to Environment

Following its presentations in Stockholm and Berlin, ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska will make its China debut at Fotografiska Shenzhen Bay Museum.

The exhibition title combines TOILETPAPER and Fotografiska, reflecting the shared spirit behind the project: an exploration of how images can move beyond the printed page and become a physical environment.

Originally created as photographs and published images, TOILETPAPER’s works are expanded here into a spatial experience. Photography, installation, objects, colour and architecture merge to create an environment that visitors can physically enter and explore.

Rather than presenting images as isolated works on the wall, ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska creates a continuous encounter filled with unexpected details, visual surprises and playful contradictions. The exhibition follows TOILETPAPER’s distinctive approach—one that embraces ambiguity and encourages each visitor to create their own interpretation.

As TOILETPAPER said: “Photography transcends the boundaries of communication between cultures and needs no translation.”

Shenzhen Edition: A New Chapter in Asia

As TOILETPAPER’s first exhibition in China, ToiletFotoPaperGrafiska at Fotografiska Shenzhen will build upon the previous presentations in Stockholm and Berlin, while introducing new works and a specially adapted exhibition design created for the Shenzhen venue.

Featuring a selection of TOILETPAPER’s most iconic photographic works alongside large-scale installations, the exhibition will be tailored to the museum’s architecture and exhibition spaces, offering a new interpretation of the studio’s distinctive visual language.

About TOILETPAPER

TOILETPAPER is an image-based publication founded in 2010 by artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari as a reaction to the often conservative art world. Their shared passion for photography and boundless creativity made TOILETPAPER known for its straightforward, colorful and sometimes provocative imagery, where an aesthetic reminiscent of advertising is combined with dark satire to comment on the absurdities of our time and our obsessions with beauty, power and consumption.
TOILETPAPER regularly illustrates articles for magazines and publications such as The New York Times, Wallpaper and Le Monde, and has previously exhibited at NMACC in Mumbai, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Art Basel Miami Beach and Les Rencontres d’Arles, among others.
MAURIZIO CATTELAN (b. 1960, Padua, Italy) is one of the foremost Italian artists on the contemporary art scene. For more than thirty years, his works have been highlighting the paradoxes of society and putting forward an incisive reflection on political and cultural scenarios. Using iconic images and caustic visual language, his creations arouse lively public debate, encouraging the spirit of collective participation.
PIERPAOLO FERRARI (b. 1971, Milan, Italy) is an Italian photographer known for his surreal and provocative imagery. He began his career in the 1990s, working with prominent advertising agencies for major brands like Nike, Sony, Campari, Heineken, Armani, Mercedes Benz, Audi, BMW and others. His bold style blends commercial photography with surrealist storytelling, influencing fashion, advertising, and design.