Zhang Xiaogang

Avant-garde Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang has gained worldwide recognition for his Surrealist influenced work, which deals intimately with notions of memory, family, history and political power.  Born in the province of Yunnan, Zhang lived through many of the atrocities of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, including labor camps and “reeducation camps.” After the fall of the communist regime, Zhang moved to Chongqing to attend Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts, where he began to expand his artistic practice. He is best known for his particular style of portraiture and for his series Bloodlines, which incorporates Zhang’s family photographs and reflects the faceless nature of the individual in China.

Zhang Xiaogang has exhibited his work internationally including solo shows at Pace Beijing, Daegu Art Museum, Korea, TodayArt Museum, Beijing, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland, and Galerie Gianluca Ranzi, Antwerp, Belgium, among others. In 1995 he presented his Bloodline: Big Family series in an exhibition installed in the Italian Pavilion during the centenary 46th Venice Biennale. The frist major monograph of his work, Zhang Xiaogang: Disquieting Memories, was published by Phaidon Press in 2015.