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Zhang Zhaohui

Widely hailed as a “dark horse”, Zhang Zhaohui has come to the fore in the realm of ink art in recent years. His work doesn’t seem to have much to do with traditional or popular ink art.  Zhang seems very stubborn when it comes to dealing with ink lines.  He arranges the lines one by one, very meticulously. And by marking ingenious use of the fortuitousness caused by the blending of water and ink, he manages to imbue this mechanical and somewhat indifferent way of working with a peculiarly mesmerizing glamour.  What’s unique about his practice is that he makes a change to the unapproachable nature of Op art through ink brush, transcending the general perception that abstract art is either “cold” or ‘hot”. In other words, by integrating the lines of rationality and glory of sensibility, he manages to present a third state of abstract.

 by Pin Jie

 

Zhang Zhaohui’s Light Infinity series opens our visible consciousness to a type of abstract visual vibration, elegantly mannered and focused on central imagery. His grids buckle, twist and turn through space, directing our eye toward a central source of light. Inevitably, Zhang’s ink paintings rest on his expertise in constructing optical forms through linear patterns that suggest “infinity” insofar as these grids might open new doors to perception.  His work focuses on the geometric in contrast to the intuitive. His method is cohesive and resilient in alluding to a type of pure optical engagement. In doing so, viewers are able to capture and distill Zhang’a optical nuances in terms of a personal vision, or as a reflective network of isolated phenomena occurring simultaneously within the eye and mind, what some might regard as a collision between seeing and thinking.

by Robert C. Morgan

 

 
 
 

1965

Born in Beijing

1988

Graduated from Nankai University, Tianjin, Museum Studies in Art History

1992

Graduated from China Art Academy, Beijing, MA

1998

Graduated from Bard College, Curatorial Studies in Contemporary Art, New York, MA degree

2003 - 2006

Central Academy of Fine Arts, Contemporary Art and Culture, Ph.D. Program, Beijing

Present:

Lecturer in the Chinese Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute

 

Lives and works in Beijing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solo Exhibitons

 

2019

The Light of Heaven, Being 3 Gallery, Beijing

 

Run: Zhang Zhaohui Ink, Donglai Mountain Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA

2018

Light of the Century, Bennet Media Studio, New York

 

Warp and Weft Ink Painting, Zhao Zhaohui Contemporary Ink Art,

 

Galway Art, Hangzhou

 

Light and Illusion, Zhang Zhaohui Ink Painting, ICI LABAS, Beijing

 

Sky Light and Cloud Shadow: Zhang Zhaohui, Anji Art Space, Shanghai

2015

The Light of Heaven, Being 3 Gallery, Beijing

2014

The Threads That Connect Us: Zhang Zhaohui Ink Painting, Red Gate Gallery

 

Abstract Ink Painting, Tenpo Art Center, Taipei

 

Mountains and Waters, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan

 

Ink Light, Peninsula Hotel Beijing, Beijing

2013

Light Infinity, Design Art Space, Beijing

 

Dao of Nature, Hakkokai Gallery, Beijing

2012

Narcissus Beyond the Myth, Being 3 Gallery, Beijing

 

One and Mass, Light and Time Art Center, Beijing

2011

Origin of Time, 800 Art Museum, Shanghai

1988

Library of Nankai University

 

Group Exhibitions

2019

 

The Way of Nature, ERYI Gallery, Beijing

 

 

Autumn Fairy, Cool House, Beijing

 

2018

New Contemporary Abstract Art, ENLAI Museum, Beijing

 

 

A City to Wear 2.0, Research House for Asian Art, Chicago

 

 

The Direction of Inkwash, Autumn Water Space, Shanghai

 

 

Summer Holiday, Contemporary Art, ERYI Gallery, Beijing

 

 

Annual Contemporary Art Documenta 2017, Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing

 

 

Sense of Paper, Melting Point, Shanghai

 

2017

The Polars, New Ink Wash Painting Series, Hong Kong

 

 

Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, Shanghai

 

 

Curitiba Biennale, Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Brazil

 

 

Maximalism Ink, Common Art Center, Beijing

 

 

Shoumo Dingxin, Chengdu Art Museum

 

 

Fractal: Zhang Zhaohui / Zhu Yuze Ink and Wash, Beijing Media Art Center

 

 

Red Gate on the Move, Red Gate Gallery

 

2016

My Living Room – Red Gate 25th Anniversary, Red Gate Gallery

 

 

Trio of Ink Abstraction, Research House for Asian Art, Chicago

 

 

Black 3+4, Wanying Art Museum, Shijiazhuang

 

 

4th China-Italia Biennale, Beijing

 

 

Grand National Ink Art, Weihai Art Gallery, Shandong

 

2015

Annual Contemporary Art Documenta 2014, Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing

 

 

In Riotous Profusion - The New Possibilities of Ink Art, Beijing, Brussels,

 

 

Chicago, Taiwan

 

 

Abstract Art and its Chinese Reference, ARS Space, Beijing

 

 

3rd China-Italia Biennale, Turin

 

 

Chinese Contemporary Art, Abbey Art Center, Naples, Italy

 

2014

2th Biennale China-Italia, 798 Art Zone, Beijing

 

 

International Contemporary Art, Art Museum of Nanjing University of Arts, Nanjing

 

 

Nanjing International Art Festival, Nanjing International Expo Center, Nanjing

 

 

Flowing Ink Art: Chinese Ink Art Painting Biennial, Time Art Museum, Beijing

 

 

Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Abstract Art, Today Art Museum, Beijing

 

2013

Great Wall Art Festival, Beijing

 

 

New Beijing Genre of Art Festival, Wenda Gallery, Beijing

 

 

Nord Art Festival, Kunstwerk Carlshütte Büdelsdorf, Germany

 

 

Five Feelings, COART Festival, Lijiang, China

 

 

Because: Mountain, Imagine Gallery, Beijing

 

2012

Serene Scent: New Ink Painting, Red Gate Gallery

 

 

1st Milan Biennale of Sino - Italian Art, Milan

 

Ink Painting from China, Kyoto Art Museum, Japan

 

Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art 2012, Macao Museum of Art

 

Linzhou Ink Painting, Linzhou Art Museum

 

Narcissus Beyond the Myth, Being 3 Gallery, Beijing

 

New Chinese Currency, Ethan Cohan Fine Art, New York

 

Take Out, Varley Gallery of Art, Toronto

 

Ink Painting Biennale, Dafen Art Museum, Shenzhen

 

Mind Natural, DYJ Lifestyle Gallery, Beijing

2011

Ink - Brush Painting from China, Miami Art Fair, USA

 

Ink - Painting No.1, Duolun Art Museum, Shanghai

 

10th Ink Painting Artist Story, Duolun Art Museum, Shanghai

 

10th Pucheon International Performance Festival, Seoul

2010

New Media Art Festival 798, Beijing

 

Nord Art Festival, Kunstwerk Carlshütte Büdelsdorf, Germany

2009

Fantasy, Sunshine Art Center, Beijing

 

360 Degree Studio Rouge, Shanghai

 

60-70-80 Chinese Contemporary Art Chateau de Tours, France

 

Erotic Make Shandong Oil Painting Gallery, Jinan

 

You & Me, Joey Chang Art, Beijing

 

Water & Color, Today's Art Museum, Beijing

2004

Manufactured Happiness, UTS Art Museum, Sydney

2003

Bare Androgyny, 798 Art Zone, Beijing

2002

New Urbanism, Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou

2001

0'C Project, Bridge Art Center, Beijing

1998

Where Heaven and Earth Meet, Bard College, Hessel Art Museum, New York

1992

Artists affiliated to Cultural Administration, National History Museum, Beijing

Fellowship and Grants

1996     Asian Cultural Council

1998     Curatorial Studies

2004     Asia Link

2014     1st Nanjing International Art Festival, Silver Medal 

 

Public Collections

Art Institute of Chicago, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Macao Museum of Art, Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, Deji Art Museum, Nanjing, Avant-Garde Contemporary Art Center, Jiangsu, Bai Jia Lake Art Museum, Nanjing, Asian Art Research House, Chicago.

The components that go into traditional ink paintings are, it seems, the raw materials for artistic development, whether spiritual, aesthetic, or technical. Traditional ink painting combines these elements using established methods and formats to produce the various categories of “traditional Chinese painting” such as gongbi paintings, xieyi paintings, figural paintings, flower and bird paintings, and landscape paintings. To meet the needs of self-expression, today’s artist can choose freely from these raw materials and selectively ignore the specifications and formats of traditional Chinese painting, and the selected elements will provide the materials for creative ink painting. These selected traditional materials, when combined, refined, transformed, and condensed using the concepts and methods of contemporary international art,acquire autonomy against the background of contemporary art; these ink painting materials now made aware and integrated through the artist’s spirit and philosophy work become the artistic medium for relaying information about contemporary society, and the ink painting itself acquires development and reconstructs sequencing, ushering ink into the context of contemporary art.

 The use of line in ink and brush painting is the basic method in “traditional Chinese painting”, embodying the delicate and refined aesthetic for working with brush and ink. The line in traditional Chinese painting serves to delineate the image and it lacks independent aesthetic value. In all ink language systems,I extract a line and render it pure and abstract, rejecting any functions related to reproduction and expression while fully using the softness and pliancy of the brush to reorganize the lines of differing texture, definition, density, and concentration into a picture in ink and to flesh out the rational sense of order in the lines so that they acquire new artistic life. At the same time as retaining classic inktraditions at the center of the work, I draw on concepts and methods of abstract art, opart, and minimalist art, and while preserving the purity of the basic language of ink I attempt to construct an ink painting of a new look that establishes a conversation with a globalized aesthetic consciousness.

The Chinese people have been embroiled in the complex relationships between West and East and between modernity and tradition for a century. In today’s context, these are no longer issues, especially in the practice of art. I can freely draw on any spiritual sustenance I want, unimpeded by form, to transform ink from traditional Chinese painting into florid contemporary art.

Zhang Zhaohui, Summer 2014

 
 
 
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