Zhang Huan
Art, to many people, to me, is another kind of religion---art lovers, Christians, Buddhists---People need a feeling to save themselves, to ease suffering, to live lighter. When we enjoy great artwork, we get happiness which nothing else can replace. In Zen, when we learn and practice the sutra's wisdom, we get Zen's enjoyment. I appreciate art giving me a living way.
---- An excerpt from the Interview By Mary Jane Jacob
Zhang Huan, Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art,
University of California Press, 2004, USA
Zhang Huan's works contain powerful, sometimes disturbing self-portraits. They record his body in extreme states: covered in a viscous attractant for a multitude of insects, bound and suspended by chains, locked in a small suffocating metal box, subjected to flying sparks, and lying on a bed of ice. Bodily discomfort and endurance are the artist's chosen idiom.
---- An excerpt from Zhang Huan: Altered States By Melissa Chiu
Published by Charta and Asia Society, 2007
Zhang Huan’s works are both highly personal and politicized, dealing with complex issues of identity, spiritualism, vulnerability, and transgression. His practice focuses on no one particular media but rather incorporates a wide variety of tactics—from performance to photography, installation, sculpture, and painting—utilizing each method for its physical and symbolic associations. This unique approach to making reinforces the interconnectivity of the concepts and recurrent motifs running throughout of Zhang’s work, and mirrors an underlying sentiment of shared human experience and bond.
----SAATCHI GALLERY
Skin 1997, Performance; Zhang Huan
Zhang Huan is acclaimed as one of the foremost artist of the new wave from China. He made his BFA at the Henan University in Kaifeng in 1988 and his MFA at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1993. Based in Shanghai and New York, he is primarily a performance and installation artist and also he contributes a lot to photographs and sculptures. Zhang Huan’s performances usually involve his body in one way or another while his sculptures reflect his background in performance. Through quasi-religious ritual, he devotes to seek how the spiritual can manifest via the corporeal. Buddhism with temple music and philosophy pervades in Zhang Huan’s works.
Image courtesy and Article courtesy of Zhang Huan.
Biography
1965 Born in An Yang City, He Nan Province, China
Lives and Works in Shanghai and New York
Education
1993
MA, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
1988 BA, He Nan University, Kai Feng, China
Long Island Buddha 2011, Copper and Steel
Selected Solo Exhibition
2011
Zhang Huan: Q Confucius, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Zhang Huan: 49 Days, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, USA
Zhang Huan: East Wind, West Wind, Espace Louis Vuittion Macao, Macao
Zhang Huan: Aura of Disappearance, Edouard Malinque Gallery, in Cooperation with The Pace Gallery, Hong Kong
Zhang Huan: Ash Banquet, ProjectB Gallery, Milan, Italy
2010
Zhang Huan: Dawn of Time, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Zhang Huan: Amituofo, Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
Zhang Huan: Ashman, PAC Museum, Milan, Italy
Zhang Huan: Free Tiger Returns to Mountains, Pace Beijing, Beijing, China
Zhang Huan: Hope Tunnel, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
As Director and Set Designer, Semele, Opera, Poly Theatre, Beijing, China
Zhang Huan: Out of the Ash, Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2009
As Director and Set Designer, Semele, Opera, Theatre Royal de La Monnaie | de Munt, Brussels, Belgium
Neither Coming Nor Going, PaceWildenstein, New York, USA
Zhang Huan, Zhu Gangqiang, White Cube, London, UK
Zhang Huan: Memory Doors, Haunch of Venison, Zurich, Switzerland
Zhang Huan, Rebirth, ProjectB Contemporary Art, Milano, Italy
Three Heads Six Arms, 2008; Steel and Copper
2008
Zhang Huan: Blessings, PaceWildenstein, New York, USA
Zhang Huan: Altered States, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Zhang Huan, Paintings and Sculptures, Diehl + Gallery One, Moscow, Russia
Zhang Huan, Works from the Collection Caspar H. Schubbe, DSV Group, Stuttgart, Germany
2007
Zhang Huan: Altered States, Asia Society, New York, USA
Zhang Huan: Ash, Haunch of Venison, London, England
Zhang Huan: Berlin Buddha, Haunch of Venison, Berlin, Germany
Zhang Huan, PhotoEspana 2007, Madrid, Spain
Zhang Huan-Drawings, Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin, Germany
To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond, 1997, Performance, Beijing, China
2006
Zhang Huan, Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin, Germany
Zhang Huan, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, Australia
2005
Zhang Huan: Seeds of Hamburg, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
2004
Zhang Huan: Seeds of Hamburg, Norton Museum of Art, Florida, USA
Zhang Huan, La Fabrica Galeria, Madrid, Spain
Zhang Huan, Tri Postal, Lille 2004, Cultural Capital of Europe, Lille, France
2003
Zhang Huan, Bochum Museum, Bochum, Germany
Zhang Huan, Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin, Germany
Zhang Huan, Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen, Danmark
2002
Zhang Huan, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
2001
Zhang Huan, Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York, USA
Zhang Huan, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Zhang Huan, Museo das Peregrinacions, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Zhang Huan: Famliy Tree, Galerie Albert Benamou, Paris, France
2000
My America, Deitch Projects, New York, USA
Zhang Huan Survey, Adam Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Zhang Huan, Cotthem Gallery, Belgium
Zhang Huan, Cotthem Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
1999
Zhang Huan, Works From 1994-1998, Max Protetch Gallery, New York, USA
Zhang Huan: Performance on Video, Artspace, Sydney, Australia
Zhang Huan: Performance, Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand
1988
Zhang Huan, He Nan University, Kai Feng, China
Hope Tunnel, 2010; copper, iron, steel, aluminium and wood
Selected Group Exhibition
2012 Superbodies, 2012 Hasselt, Hasselt, Belgium
2011
Skin, The Foundation of Claude Verdan, Museum of Science and Art, Lausanne, Switzerland
About Identity, Art Stations Foundation by Grazyna Kulczyk, Poznan, Poland
The World Belongs to You, Palazzo Grassi, Francois Pinault Foundation, Venice, Italy
Living, The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
Glasstress 2011, Venice, Italy
Big Brother, Artists Facing Tyrants, Palais des Arts, Dinard, France
2011 Haein Art Project, Haeinsa, Hapcheon, Korea
2010
Hope! The city of Dinard, Dinard, France
Art for The World, The Sculpture Project of The Expo Boulevard, World Expo 2010, Shanghai, China
Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance, The Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Arts and Cities, Aichi Triennale 2010, Aichi, Japan
The Silk Road, From Saatchi Gallery, Tri Postal, Lille, France
Photography from The New China, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA
The Tiger in Asian Art, Asia House, London, UK
Negotiations, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
The Naked Face: Self Portrait, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Rehearsal, 2010 Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China
2009
The Buhl Collection: Speaking with Hands, Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
Action-Camera: Beijing Performance Photography, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Steel Life, La Triennale di Milano, Milano, Italy
Yi Pai-Century Thinking, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
The Social Critique 1993-2005, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden
Re_View: 170 Years of Photography, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Beg Borrow and Steal, The Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA
100 Years, A Draft of a History, PS1 Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
2008
Body Language: Chinese Photography, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Half-Life of a Dream: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Collection of Kent and Vicki Logan, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
Person of the Crowd, Neuberger Museum of Art, New York, USA
Avant-garde China, Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, The National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan
China Gold, Contemporary Chinese Art, Museum of Maillol, Paris, France
Sculpture at Pilane 2008, Tjorn, Sweden
Position and Deposition: Franko B/Zhang Huan, Galleria Pack, Milano, Italy
Origins, Hudson Valley Center, New York, USA
Encounters, Pace Beijing, Beijing, China
Christian Dior & Chinese Artists, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Meat After Meat Joy, Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, New York, USA
Meat After Meat Joy, Pierre Menard Gallery, Cambridge, USA
2007
Exposed: Defining Moments in Photograph from the MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
ZHUYI! CHINA. Contemporary Photography from China, Artium of Alava, Center Museum of Contemporary Art, Spain
Made in China, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
Water, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Timer.01, Intimacy, Triennale Bovisa 2007, Milan, Italy
Voiceless: I feel therefore I am, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, Australia
Red Hot: Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
The Quiet Gesture, Recent Chinese Art, The Newark Museum, Newark, USA
Contemporary Combustion: Chinese Artists in America, The New Britian Museum of American Art, New Britian, USA
An Instinctive Eye: A Selection of Contemporary Photographs from the Sir Elton John Collection, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev, Ukraine
Grey Water, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
All for Art! Great Collections Among Us, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec, Canada
Photographies, New Acquisition 2003-2007, Center Pompidou, Paris, France
Multiplex: Directions in Art, 1970 to Now, The Museum of Modern Art , New York , USA
2006
Shoot the Family, Cranbrook Art Museum, Michigan, USA
Making a Scene, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel
Reverence, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, New York, USA
Fever Variations, The 6th Gwangju Biennale 2006, Gwangju, Korea
Radar - Selection from the Logan Collection, Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA
Drawing as Process in Contemporary Art, Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA
2005
The Museum Collections, New Presentation of Art Works from 1960 to the Present Day, Center Pompidou, Paris, France
Mahjong, Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Swizerland
Locus Loppem 2005, Kunsthalle Lophem, Lophem, Belgium
Between Skin and Orgasm--The Alchemistic Body, Kunsthalle Lophem, Center for Contemporary Art, Lophem, Belgium
Monuments for the USA, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA
The Great Beyond, Kunstmuseum Thun, Thun, Swizerland
Text Me: An Exploration of Body Language, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, Australia
On the Edge: Contemporary Chinese Artists Encounter the West, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, California, USA
Person of the Crowd, Contemporary Museum, Maryland, USA
Future Face, National Museum of Natural Science, Taiwan
The Wall, Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art, The China Millennium Monument Art Gallery, Beijing, China
The Pictures of Dorian Gray, Galeria de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City, Mexico
Fusion: Aspects of Asian Culture in the MUSAC Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Leon, Spain
2004
Witness, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
Regeneration, Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the US, Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania, USA
Face/off, The Association of Arts and Crafts Pforzheim, Pforzheim, Germany
Dialogue with Pop, The Tank, Spaceworks Gallery, New York, USA
The Art Project Goetzen, Houses of an Idol, Frankfurt (Oder)/Slubice, Germany/Poland
The Amazing and the Immutable, University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Florida, USA
Supernova: Art of the 1990s from the Logan Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, International Center of Photography, New York, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
Me, Myself & I, University Galleries, Florida Atlantic University, Florida, USA
Supernova: Art of the 1990s from the Logan Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
Queens International 2004, Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA
Camera/Action: Performance and Photography, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, USA
Constructed Identities, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, USA
Anthro/Socio, The: Artist: Network, New York, USA
2003
Somewhere Better Than This Place, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA
2003 Beaufort, Triennial for Contemporary Art by the Sea, The PMMK, the Museum of Modern Art, Ostend, Belgium
Art Project, DiverseWorks Artspace, Houston, USA
Temporal Mood, Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, USA
Rituals, Academy of Arts, Berlin, Germany
Family Ties, Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts, USA
Body Politics, Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York, USA
Windstil, Cotthem Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Banquet, Metabolism and Communication, ZKM, Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
Photo Espana 2003, International Photography Festival, Madrid, Spain
Phantom of Desire: Visions of Masochism in Art, Neue Galerie, Graz, Austria
Me and More, Museum of Art Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland
Come Rally, Basque Museum of Contemporary Art (Artium), Vitoria, Spain
Skin Deep, The Trento and Rovereto Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rovereto, Italy
Performance and Almost Performance, Reina Sofia National Museum, Madrid, Spain
BQE, White Box, New York, USA
Blood Lines & Connections, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, USA
Full Frontal: Contemporary Asian Artists from the Logan Collection, Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA
Spiders and Flies, Newcontemporaries, Sydney, Australia
New Zone, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsow, Poland
Family Tree, performance
2002
2002 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York, USA
Skin Talks, Musee de la Civilisation, Quebec, Canada
Attachment+, Kunsthalle Lophem, Center for Contemporary Art, Belgium
China Contemporary Art Exhibition--Red Continent, Gwangju Art Museum, Korea
Paisajes del Cuerpo, Sala Zapateria 40, Pamplona, Spain
La Mirada Ajena, Basque Museum of Contemporary Art(Artium), Vitoria, Spain
SAM Collects, Contemporary Art Projects, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA
The Gift, Generous Offerings, Threatening Hospitality, The Bronx Museum of Art, New York, USA
Subjectivity: Photographs of Themselves, Arizona State University Art Museum, Arizona, USA
2001
Yokohama 2001: International Triennale of Contemporary Art, Pacific Yokohama, Japan
Translated Acts, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, and Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA
The Gift, Center of Contemporary Art, Siena, Italy
Subject Plural: Crowds in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum, Texas, USA
Metamorphosis and Cloning, Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal, Canada
Naked, Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh, USA
Lateral Thinking, Art of the 1990s, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA
2000
Art and Religion, Parkabdij Heverlee, Belgium (Organized by Museum S.M.A.K., Gent, Belgium)
On the Edge of the Western World, Yerba Buena Center of the Arts,San Francisco, USA
Emotional Rescue: The Contemporary Art Project Collection, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, USA
Utopia, Rogaland Kunstmuseum, Stavanger, Norway
Betreff, Expo 2000, Themenpark, Basic Needs, Hannover, Germany
Waterfront--Cultural Bridge 2000, Helsingborg Museum, Sweden and Danmark
Sharing Exoticisms, 5th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France
The Standard Projection: 24/7, The Standard Hotel, Los Angeles, USA
Video via Venice, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA
Socialisms, Special Exhibition / Stockholm Art Fair, Sweden
6 Signals: Video by Contemporary Artists, Cheekwood, Nashville, USA
Potent /Present: Selections from the Vicki and Kent Logan Collection, CCAC Institute, Oakland, USA
Recent Acquisitions, The Doron Sebbag Art Collection, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Isael
1999
The Century of the Body: Photoworks 1900-2000, Culturgest, Lisbon, and Musee de LElysee, lausanne, France
Last Paradise, Presenca Galeria, Portugal
Self-Portrait, Mercer Union, Centre for Contemporaty Art, Toronto, Canada
Five Continents and a City: Second International Salon of Painting, Museum of Mexico City, Mexico City, Mexico
Best of the Season, Aldrich Museum of Contemporaty Art, Rigefield, USA
Stories, A/C Projects, New York, USA
Summit, Galerie 5020, Salzburg, Austria
Art-Worlds in Dialogue, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Risk Cinema, Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Zhang Huan: A Video Survey 1994-1998; Performance Art from China, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand
48th La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
The Kent and Vicki Logan Collection, San Francisco, USA
Contemporary Collectors, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA
Transience: Chinese Art at the End of the Twentieth Century, The Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, USA
In Your Face, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, USA
1998
Inside Out: New Chinese Art, Asia Society, New York, NY, PS 1 Museum of Contemporary Art, Long Island City, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
In Your Face, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, USA
1997
Chinese Contemporary Art 1997, Watari Museum, Tokyo, Japan
1996
China Art Festival, Munich, Germany
Art Material of China, Avant Garde, Fukuoka, Tokyo, Japan
1995 Configura 2, Erfurt, Germany
1993 Graduate Show, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
