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
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1965 |
Born in Beijing |
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1988 |
Graduated from Nankai University, Tianjin, Museum Studies in Art History |
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1992 |
Graduated from China Art Academy, Beijing, MA |
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1998 |
Graduated from Bard College, Curatorial Studies in Contemporary Art, New York, MA degree |
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2003 - 2006 |
Central Academy of Fine Arts, Contemporary Art and Culture, Ph.D. Program, Beijing |
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Present: |
Lecturer in the Chinese Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute |
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Lives and works in Beijing |
Solo Exhibitons
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2019 |
The Light of Heaven, Being 3 Gallery, Beijing |
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Run: Zhang Zhaohui Ink, Donglai Mountain Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA |
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2018 |
Light of the Century, Bennet Media Studio, New York |
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Warp and Weft Ink Painting, Zhao Zhaohui Contemporary Ink Art, |
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Galway Art, Hangzhou |
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Light and Illusion, Zhang Zhaohui Ink Painting, ICI LABAS, Beijing |
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Sky Light and Cloud Shadow: Zhang Zhaohui, Anji Art Space, Shanghai |
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2015 |
The Light of Heaven, Being 3 Gallery, Beijing |
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2014 |
The Threads That Connect Us: Zhang Zhaohui Ink Painting, Red Gate Gallery |
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Abstract Ink Painting, Tenpo Art Center, Taipei |
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Mountains and Waters, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan |
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Ink Light, Peninsula Hotel Beijing, Beijing |
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2013 |
Light Infinity, Design Art Space, Beijing |
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Dao of Nature, Hakkokai Gallery, Beijing |
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2012 |
Narcissus Beyond the Myth, Being 3 Gallery, Beijing |
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One and Mass, Light and Time Art Center, Beijing |
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2011 |
Origin of Time, 800 Art Museum, Shanghai |
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1988 |
Library of Nankai University |
Group Exhibitions
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2019 |
The Way of Nature, ERYI Gallery, Beijing |
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Autumn Fairy, Cool House, Beijing |
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2018 |
New Contemporary Abstract Art, ENLAI Museum, Beijing |
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A City to Wear 2.0, Research House for Asian Art, Chicago |
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The Direction of Inkwash, Autumn Water Space, Shanghai |
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Summer Holiday, Contemporary Art, ERYI Gallery, Beijing |
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Annual Contemporary Art Documenta 2017, Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing |
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Sense of Paper, Melting Point, Shanghai |
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2017 |
The Polars, New Ink Wash Painting Series, Hong Kong |
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Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, Shanghai |
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Curitiba Biennale, Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Brazil |
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Maximalism Ink, Common Art Center, Beijing |
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Shoumo Dingxin, Chengdu Art Museum |
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Fractal: Zhang Zhaohui / Zhu Yuze Ink and Wash, Beijing Media Art Center |
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Red Gate on the Move, Red Gate Gallery |
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2016 |
My Living Room – Red Gate 25th Anniversary, Red Gate Gallery |
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Trio of Ink Abstraction, Research House for Asian Art, Chicago |
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Black 3+4, Wanying Art Museum, Shijiazhuang |
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4th China-Italia Biennale, Beijing |
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Grand National Ink Art, Weihai Art Gallery, Shandong |
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2015 |
Annual Contemporary Art Documenta 2014, Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing |
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In Riotous Profusion - The New Possibilities of Ink Art, Beijing, Brussels, |
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Chicago, Taiwan |
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Abstract Art and its Chinese Reference, ARS Space, Beijing |
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3rd China-Italia Biennale, Turin |
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Chinese Contemporary Art, Abbey Art Center, Naples, Italy |
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2014 |
2th Biennale China-Italia, 798 Art Zone, Beijing |
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International Contemporary Art, Art Museum of Nanjing University of Arts, Nanjing |
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Nanjing International Art Festival, Nanjing International Expo Center, Nanjing |
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Flowing Ink Art: Chinese Ink Art Painting Biennial, Time Art Museum, Beijing |
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Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Abstract Art, Today Art Museum, Beijing |
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2013 |
Great Wall Art Festival, Beijing |
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New Beijing Genre of Art Festival, Wenda Gallery, Beijing |
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Nord Art Festival, Kunstwerk Carlshütte Büdelsdorf, Germany |
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Five Feelings, COART Festival, Lijiang, China |
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Because: Mountain, Imagine Gallery, Beijing |
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2012 |
Serene Scent: New Ink Painting, Red Gate Gallery |
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1st Milan Biennale of Sino - Italian Art, Milan |
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Ink Painting from China, Kyoto Art Museum, Japan |
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Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art 2012, Macao Museum of Art |
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Linzhou Ink Painting, Linzhou Art Museum |
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Narcissus Beyond the Myth, Being 3 Gallery, Beijing |
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New Chinese Currency, Ethan Cohan Fine Art, New York |
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Take Out, Varley Gallery of Art, Toronto |
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Ink Painting Biennale, Dafen Art Museum, Shenzhen |
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Mind Natural, DYJ Lifestyle Gallery, Beijing |
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2011 |
Ink - Brush Painting from China, Miami Art Fair, USA |
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Ink - Painting No.1, Duolun Art Museum, Shanghai |
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10th Ink Painting Artist Story, Duolun Art Museum, Shanghai |
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10th Pucheon International Performance Festival, Seoul |
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2010 |
New Media Art Festival 798, Beijing |
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Nord Art Festival, Kunstwerk Carlshütte Büdelsdorf, Germany |
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2009 |
Fantasy, Sunshine Art Center, Beijing |
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360 Degree Studio Rouge, Shanghai |
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60-70-80 Chinese Contemporary Art Chateau de Tours, France |
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Erotic Make Shandong Oil Painting Gallery, Jinan |
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You & Me, Joey Chang Art, Beijing |
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Water & Color, Today's Art Museum, Beijing |
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2004 |
Manufactured Happiness, UTS Art Museum, Sydney |
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2003 |
Bare Androgyny, 798 Art Zone, Beijing |
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2002 |
New Urbanism, Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou |
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2001 |
0'C Project, Bridge Art Center, Beijing |
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1998 |
Where Heaven and Earth Meet, Bard College, Hessel Art Museum, New York |
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1992 |
Artists affiliated to Cultural Administration, National History Museum, Beijing |
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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
