Why Does Phaidon's Vitamin P3 Matter?
Zhang Enli
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The paintings of Zhang Enli depict the familiar and overlooked; everyday objects that are connected through the artist’s immediate surroundings. He often paints in series, such as those works that concern the theme of the container–cardboard boxes, ashtrays, tin chests and lavatories. Other paintings depict functional municipal structures that populate the streets of Shanghai–public toilets and outdoor water features constructed from ceramic tiles. Several paintings, including a series of watercolours, show the backs of balding heads and the outgrown haircuts of anonymous city dwellers. Throughout his work one can sense the artist’s presence as he quietly observes a fragile reality. Influenced by the loose washes of traditional Chinese brush painting, Zhang dilutes his paint until it is almost like a glaze, leaving pencil-drawn grids visible beneath the layers of paint. By allowing the grids to show through the painted surface, Zhang constantly reminds us that his paintings are artistic constructs, not direct replicas of any given object. Imbuing his subjects with human relevance, he has said, “I deal with reality in order to express something that goes beyond reality.”
He has had solo exhibitions at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, Museo d’Arte contemporanea di Villa Croce in Genoa, Shanghai Art …
The paintings of Zhang Enli depict the familiar and overlooked; everyday objects that are connected through the artist’s immediate surroundings. He often paints in series, such as those works that concern the theme of the container–cardboard boxes, ashtrays, tin chests and lavatories. Other paintings depict functional municipal structures that populate the streets of Shanghai–public toilets and outdoor water features constructed from ceramic tiles. Several paintings, including a series of watercolours, show the backs of balding heads and the outgrown haircuts of anonymous city dwellers. Throughout his work one can sense the artist’s presence as he quietly observes a fragile reality. Influenced by the loose washes of traditional Chinese brush painting, Zhang dilutes his paint until it is almost like a glaze, leaving pencil-drawn grids visible beneath the layers of paint. By allowing the grids to show through the painted surface, Zhang constantly reminds us that his paintings are artistic constructs, not direct replicas of any given object. Imbuing his subjects with human relevance, he has said, “I deal with reality in order to express something that goes beyond reality.”
He has had solo exhibitions at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, Museo d’Arte contemporanea di Villa Croce in Genoa, Shanghai Art Museum, Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai, and Kunsthalle Bern. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Bejing, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, The National Art Museum of China in Bejing, Royal Academy of Art in London, and Kunsthaus Wien in Vienna, among many other institutions.
Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth
Born 1965
Hometown Jilin, China
Lives and Works Shanghai, China
Education
Arts & Design Institute of Wuxi Technical University, China, 1989
Works Available for Purchase
No works
