Zhang Xiaogang

The Martyr's Blood, Chinese Art, 21st Contemporary Art, Figurative Art

2009

Inspired by contemporary tensions in China, Zhang Xiaogang makes grim, unsettling portraits that consider identity and heredity in a collectivist state. The artist draws on influences that include political iconography, Chinese charcoal drawings, distorted Surrealist compositions, and family portraits from the Cultural Revolution era. His paintings, often executed in grisaille with bursts of bright yellow or red at the center, explore how varied individual histories are flattened into conformist representations. Zhang has exhibited in New York, Beijing, Tokyo, London, Paris, and Hong Kong, among other cities. His work belongs in the collections of the Long Museum, the M+ Sigg Collection, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Shenzhen Art Museum, and the Guggenheim Museum. Zhang’s practice also includes sculpture.