ז’אנג הואן
ЧЖАН ХУАНЬ

Taiwan Buddha

source: bhasiaart
Zhang Huan, artista chinês aclamado internacionalmente, nasceu em 1965 em Anyang, Província de Henan, e atualmente reside e trabalha em Xangai. Ativo em Pequim na década de 1990, ele foi considerado um dos maiores artistas de vanguarda do país. Morando em Nova York de 1998 a 2005, ganhou reconhecimento internacional.
Voltando para Xangai em 2005, ele fundou Zhang Huan Studio onde continuou a ampliar o escopo de seu trabalho artístico, criando novas formas e explorando novas áreas. Suas pinturas com cinzas acrescentaram uma nova técnica à história da arte. Ele abriu caminho com ainda outras técnicas como escultura em couro de boi e em portas, e xilogravuras com penas, para citar algumas.
Exposições individuais aconteceram no Norton Museum of Art na Florida, Shangai Art Museum, Gallery of Ontario em Toronto, Canadá, e Palazzo Vecchio e Forte de Belvedere em Florence, Italy. Suas obras podem ser encontradas nas coleções de museus de arte contemporânea e de fundações em grandes cidades ao redor do mundo.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: artnet
Zhang Huan (Chinese, b.1965) is a performance artist, painter, photographer, and sculptor best known for performances that test his own physical and mental endurance, create symbolic self-portraits, and question the role of family and culture in shaping our way of thinking. Born in An Yang City, He Nan Province, Huan studied traditional painting at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts. Inspired by reading about performance art at the Central Academy library and seeing the photography of Tseng Kwong-Chi, Huan staged his first performance titled Angel (1993) at the National Art Museum of China. In this work, Huan laid down almost naked in the entrance hall and poured over his body red liquid and parts of a dismembered doll, referencing the Chinese government policy that requires women to have an abortion if they conceive more than one child. In these early years, Huan was part of the East Village group, avant-garde performance artists living on the outskirts of Beijing. Huan continued to make performance art in museums and at public events during a period living in the United States. After he moved to Shanghai in 2006, Huan has focused on sculpture, woodworking, and painting. In a recent series titled Memory Doors, begun in 2006, he created screen prints of photographs depicting Chinese historical events on doors that he found in Shanxi Province. All of Huan’s work has a spiritual foundation, but his interest in Tibetan Buddhism, which he cites as a key influence, is evident in a recent series of paintings and sculptures made from ash collected at Buddhist temples. Huan emphasizes family and cultural connections in the photographic series Foam (1998), ten pictures that feature the artist’s face covered in foam with members of his family bursting out of his mouth. Similarly, his series of nine photographs titled Family Tree (2000) documents the artist’s face as calligraphers painted personal and cultural stories on his skin until it was covered in ink. Huan has held solo exhibitions at many galleries and museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Shanghai Art Museum, and the Haunch of Venison Gallery in London. He is represented by the Pace Gallery in New York. He lives and works Shanghai and New York.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: pacificasiamuseumorg
Foam Series
Detail, Foam series, Zhang Huan, 1998, c-print on Fuji archival paper, 60 x 40 in., courtesy of Rubell Family Collection
Zhang Huan gained international attention through provocative performances in which he often incorporated his own body. In the self-portrait Foam, he is shown devouring an old family photograph while covered in soapy foam. Zhang’s act of simultaneously cleansing his body and consuming the photos represents a desire to absorb and make his relatives literally a part of him.
Although it is anticipated that Banquet exhibition will stimulate a dialog between ethnicities, generations, popular culture, and history, the exhibition is primarily a sensory experience. Banquet will offer a lavish “feast” that will delight the senses with a varied flavors and textures. Traditional salty elements balance sweet essences. Sour bits mingled with hot spicy flourishes. Familiar ingredients combined and prepared in new ways result in a visual food fusion that nourishes the mind, body, and soul.