Zhang Huan was born in 1965 at An Yang City in China. He studied painting at Beijing Fine Art Academy. He had a long spell in New York, but since 2005 he has lived and worked in Shanghai. At the beginning of his career he focused on performance art, using his own body, often naked, and submitting it to extreme conditions. For instance, in 12m² he completely covered himself in a mixture of fish oil and honey, he then sat on a stool in a public latrine for hours while different types of insects crawled all over his body. Since his return to China, he has mainly been dedicated to installation, sculptures and painting. He also started to work with incense ash from the Buddhist temples of Shanghai, which he uses to realize his famous ash-paintings and ash-sculptures. He has held exhibitions in major world museums, such as Carriageworks in Sydney, Pace Gallery and Storm King Art Center in New York. His works can be found in renowned collections, both private and public.
WORKS
TEXTS
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EXHIBITIONS
1993
ZhangHuan: Graduate Show, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
1995
ZhangHuan: Configura 2, Erfurt, Germany
1996
ZhangHuan: China Art Festival, Munich, Germany
ZhangHuan: Art Material of China, Avant Garde, Fukuoka, Tokyo, Japan
1997
ZhangHuan: Chinese Contemporary Art 1997, Watari Museum, Tokyo, Japan
1998
ZhangHuan: 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
ZhangHuan: In Your Face, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, USA
1999
ZhangHuan: The Century of the Body: Photoworks 1900-2000, Culturgest, Lisbon, and Musee de LElysee, lausanne, France
ZhangHuan: Last Paradise, Presenca Galeria, Portugal
ZhangHuan: Self-Portrait, Mercer Union, Centre for Contemporaty Art, Toronto, Canada
ZhangHuan: Five Continents and a City: Second International Salon of Painting, Museum of Mexico City, Mexico City, Mexico
ZhangHuan: Best of the Season, Aldrich Museum of Contemporaty Art, Rigefield, USA
ZhangHuan: Stories, A/C Projects, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Summit, Galerie 5020, Salzburg, Austria
ZhangHuan: Art-Worlds in Dialogue, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
ZhangHuan: Risk Cinema, Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
ZhangHuan: A Video Survey 1994-1998; Performance Art from China, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand
ZhangHuan: 48th La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
ZhangHuan: The Kent and Vicki Logan Collection, San Francisco, USA
ZhangHuan: Contemporary Collectors, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA
ZhangHuan: Transience: Chinese Art at the End of the Twentieth Century, The Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, USA
ZhangHuan: In Your Face, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, USA
2000
ZhangHuan: Art and Religion, Parkabdij Heverlee, Belgium (Organized by Museum S.M.A.K., Gent, Belgium)
ZhangHuan: On the Edge of the Western World, Yerba Buena Center of the Arts,San Francisco, USA
ZhangHuan: Emotional Rescue: The Contemporary Art Project Collection, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, USA
ZhangHuan: Utopia, Rogaland Kunstmuseum, Stavanger, Norway
ZhangHuan: Betreff, Expo 2000, Themenpark, Basic Needs, Hannover, Germany
ZhangHuan: Waterfront--Cultural Bridge 2000, Helsingborg Museum, Sweden and Danmark
ZhangHuan: Sharing Exoticisms, 5th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France
ZhangHuan: The Standard Projection: 24/7, The Standard Hotel, Los Angeles, USA
ZhangHuan: Video via Venice, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA
ZhangHuan: Socialisms, Special Exhibition / Stockholm Art Fair, Sweden
ZhangHuan: 6 Signals: Video by Contemporary Artists, Cheekwood, Nashville, USA
ZhangHuan: Potent /Present: Selections from the Vicki and Kent Logan Collection, CCAC Institute, Oakland, USA
ZhangHuan: Recent Acquisitions, The Doron Sebbag Art Collection, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Isael
2001
ZhangHuan: The Gift, Center of Contemporary Art, Siena, Italy
ZhangHuan: Subject Plural: Crowds in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum, Texas, USA
ZhangHuan: Metamorphosis and Cloning, Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal, Canada
ZhangHuan: Naked, Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh, USA
ZhangHuan: Lateral Thinking, Art of the 1990s, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA
ZhangHuan: Yokohama 2001: International Triennale of Contemporary Art, Pacific Yokohama, Japan
ZhangHuan: Translated Acts, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, and Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA
2002
ZhangHuan: Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Skin Talks, Musee de la Civilisation, Quebec, Canada
ZhangHuan: Attachment+, Kunsthalle Lophem, Center for Contemporary Art, Belgium
ZhangHuan: China Contemporary Art Exhibition--Red Continent, Gwangju Art Museum, Korea
ZhangHuan: Paisajes del Cuerpo, Sala Zapateria 40, Pamplona, Spain
ZhangHuan: La Mirada Ajena, Basque Museum of Contemporary Art(Artium), Vitoria, Spain
ZhangHuan: SAM Collects, Contemporary Art Projects, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA
ZhangHuan: The Gift, Generous Offerings, Threatening Hospitality, The Bronx Museum of Art, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Subjectivity: Photographs of Themselves, Arizona State University Art Museum, Arizona, USA
2003
ZhangHuan: Somewhere Better Than This Place, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA
2004
ZhangHuan: Witness, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
ZhangHuan: Regeneration, Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the US, Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania, USA
ZhangHuan: Face/off, The Association of Arts and Crafts Pforzheim, Pforzheim, Germany
ZhangHuan: Dialogue with Pop, The Tank, Spaceworks Gallery, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: The Art Project Goetzen, Houses of an Idol, Frankfurt (Oder)/Slubice, Germany/Poland
ZhangHuan: The Amazing and the Immutable, University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Florida, USA
ZhangHuan: Supernova: Art of the 1990s from the Logan Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
ZhangHuan: Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, International Center of Photography, New York, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
ZhangHuan: Me, Myself & I, University Galleries, Florida Atlantic University, Florida, USA
ZhangHuan: Supernova: Art of the 1990s from the Logan Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
ZhangHuan: Queens International 2004, Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Camera/Action: Performance and Photography, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, USA
ZhangHuan: Constructed Identities, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, USA
ZhangHuan: Anthro/Socio, The: Artist: Network, New York, USA
2005
ZhangHuan: The Museum Collections, New Presentation of Art Works from 1960 to the Present Day, Center Pompidou, Paris, France
ZhangHuan: Mahjong, Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Swizerland
ZhangHuan: Locus Loppem 2005, Kunsthalle Lophem, Lophem, Belgium
ZhangHuan: Between Skin and Orgasm--The Alchemistic Body, Kunsthalle Lophem, Center for Contemporary Art, Lophem, Belgium
ZhangHuan: Monuments for the USA, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA
ZhangHuan: The Great Beyond, Kunstmuseum Thun, Thun, Swizerland
ZhangHuan: Text Me: An Exploration of Body Language, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, Australia
ZhangHuan: On the Edge: Contemporary Chinese Artists Encounter the West, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, California, USA
ZhangHuan: Person of the Crowd, Contemporary Museum, Maryland, USA
ZhangHuan: Future Face, National Museum of Natural Science, Taiwan
ZhangHuan: The Wall, Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art, The China Millennium Monument Art Gallery, Beijing, China
ZhangHuan: The Pictures of Dorian Gray, Galeria de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City, Mexico
ZhangHuan: Fusion: Aspects of Asian Culture in the MUSAC Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Leon, Spain
2006
ZhangHuan: Shoot the Family, Cranbrook Art Museum, Michigan, USA
ZhangHuan: Making a Scene, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel
ZhangHuan: Reverence, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Fever Variations, The 6th Gwangju Biennale 2006, Gwangju, Korea
ZhangHuan: Radar - Selection from the Logan Collection, Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA
ZhangHuan: Drawing as Process in Contemporary Art, Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA
2007
ZhangHuan: Made in China, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
ZhangHuan: Water, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
ZhangHuan: Timer.01, Intimacy, Triennale Bovisa 2007, Milan, Italy
ZhangHuan: Voiceless: I feel therefore I am, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, Australia
ZhangHuan: Red Hot: Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
ZhangHuan: The Quiet Gesture, Recent Chinese Art, The Newark Museum, Newark, USA
ZhangHuan: Contemporary Combustion: Chinese Artists in America, The New Britian Museum of American Art, New Britian, USA
ZhangHuan: An Instinctive Eye: A Selection of Contemporary Photographs from the Sir Elton John Collection, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev, Ukraine
ZhangHuan: Grey Water, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
ZhangHuan: All for Art! Great Collections Among Us, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec, Canada
ZhangHuan: Photographies, New Acquisition 2003-2007, Center Pompidou, Paris, France
ZhangHuan: Multiplex: Directions in Art, 1970 to Now, The Museum of Modern Art , New York , USA
ZhangHuan: Exposed: Defining Moments in Photograph from the MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
ZhangHuan: ZHUYI! CHINA. Contemporary Photography from China, Artium of Alava, Center Museum of Contemporary Art, Spain
2008
ZhangHuan: Body Language: Chinese Photography, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
ZhangHuan: 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
ZhangHuan: Person of the Crowd, Neuberger Museum of Art, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Avant-garde China, Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, The National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan
ZhangHuan: China Gold, Contemporary Chinese Art, Museum of Maillol, Paris, France
ZhangHuan: Sculpture at Pilane 2008, Tjorn, Sweden
ZhangHuan: Position and Deposition: Franko B/Galleria Pack, Milano, Italy
ZhangHuan: Origins, Hudson Valley Center, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Encounters, Pace Beijing, Beijing, China
ZhangHuan: Christian Dior & Chinese Artists, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
ZhangHuan: Meat After Meat Joy, Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Meat After Meat Joy, Pierre Menard Gallery, Cambridge, USA
2009
ZhangHuan: The Buhl Collection: Speaking with Hands, Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
ZhangHuan: Action-Camera: Beijing Performance Photography, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
ZhangHuan: Steel Life, La Triennale di Milano, Milano, Italy
ZhangHuan: Yi Pai-Century Thinking, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
ZhangHuan: The Social Critique 1993-2005, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden
ZhangHuan: Re_View: 170 Years of Photography, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
ZhangHuan: Beg Borrow and Steal, The Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA
ZhangHuan: 100 Years, A Draft of a History, PS1 Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
2010
ZhangHuan: Hope! The city of Dinard, Dinard, France
ZhangHuan: Art for The World, The Sculpture Project of The Expo Boulevard, World Expo 2010, Shanghai, China
ZhangHuan: Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance, The Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Arts and Cities, Aichi Triennale 2010, Aichi, Japan
ZhangHuan: The Silk Road, From Saatchi Gallery, Tri Postal, Lille, France
ZhangHuan: Photography from The New China, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA
ZhangHuan: The Tiger in Asian Art, Asia House, London, UK
ZhangHuan: Negotiations, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
ZhangHuan: The Naked Face: Self Portrait, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
ZhangHuan: Rehearsal, 2010 Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China
2011
ZhangHuan: Skin, The Foundation of Claude Verdan, Museum of Science and Art, Lausanne, Switzerland
ZhangHuan: About Identity, Art Stations Foundation by Grazyna Kulczyk, Poznan, Poland
ZhangHuan: The World Belongs to You, Palazzo Grassi, Francois Pinault Foundation, Venice, Italy
ZhangHuan: Living, The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
ZhangHuan: Glasstress 2011, Venice, Italy
ZhangHuan: Big Brother, Artists Facing Tyrants, Palais des Arts, Dinard, France
2012
ZhangHuan: Transforming Minds: Buddhism in Art, Asia Society Hong Kong Center, Hong Kong
ZhangHuan: Face, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China
ZhangHuan: Visible/Invisible, Italy Pavilion, Shanghai, China
ZhangHuan: Sculpture at Pilane 2012, Tjorn, Sweden
ZhangHuan: Art Festival Watou 2012, Watou, Belgium
ZhangHuan: Omen2012-Chinese New Art, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
ZhangHuan: Electric Fields-Surrealism and Beyond, The Collection from Centre Pompidou, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
ZhangHuan: Superbodies, 2012 Hasselt, Hasselt, Belgium
ZhangHuan: Swept Away: Dust, Ashes and Dirt in Contemporary Art and Design, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA
2013
ZhangHuan: Disaster, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
ZhangHuan: Through the Eyes of Texas: Masterworks from Alumni Collections, Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas, Texas, USA
ZhangHuan: The Collectors’ Show: Weight of History, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
ZhangHuan: China, China, Pinchuk Art Center, Kyiv, Ukraine
ZhangHuan: Culture . Mind . Becoming, Collateral Event of Chinese Art at the 55th Venice Art Biennale 2013, Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy
ZhangHuan: The Red Queen, The Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Australia
ZhangHuan: Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Portrait of The Times: 30 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
ZhangHuan: 28 Chinese, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA
ZhangHuan: Three Perfections, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
ZhangHuan: BhAsia: Asia Occupies the City, Liberty Square, Belo Horizonte, Brasil
2014
ZhangHuan: Art Lovers, from Pinault Collection, Grimaldi Forum Monaco, Monaco
ZhangHuan: Utopian Days-Freedom, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
ZhangHuan: Myth/History: YUZ Collection of Contemporary Art, YUZ Museum Shanghai, Shanghai, China
ZhangHuan: A History, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
ZhangHuan: Collection De Heus-Zomer: Chinese Art, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
ZhangHuan: Where is China? Museum of the Orient, Lisbon, Portugal; World Art Museum, China Millennium Monument, Beijing, China
ZhangHuan: Secret Signs, Calligraphy in Chinese Contemporary Art, in Collaboration with the Sigg Collection and the M+, Hong Kong, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany
ZhangHuan: Typology, Taxonomy and Seriality: Photography from the Walther Collection, Espace Van Gogh, Arles, France
ZhangHuan: Special Project for the 20th Anniversary of Gwangju Biennale: Sweet Dew-Since 1980, Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, South Korea
2015
ZhangHuan: Contemporary Chinese Photography, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA
ZhangHuan: Go East: The Gene & Brian Sherman Contemporary Asian Collection, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
ZhangHuan: The Wondrous All: Leading Edge of Eastern Thought, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
ZhangHuan: Myth/History II: Shanghai Galaxy, YUZ Museum Shanghai, Shanghai, China
ZhangHuan: CHINA 8-Contemporary Art from China on the Rhine and Ruhr, Duisburg, Germany
2016
ZhangHuan: Bentu: A Selection of Chinese Artists in A Time of Turbulence and Transformation, The Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
ZhangHuan: Takashi Murakami’s Superflat Collection, Yokohama Art Museum, Yokohama, Japan
ZhangHuan: M+ Sigg Collection: Four Decades of Chinese Contemporary Art, ArtisTree, Hong Kong, China
ZhangHuan: Busan Biennale 2016, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, South Korea
ZhangHuan: OCD: A Collection of One’s Own, Castile-Leon Museum of Contemporary Art, Leon, Spain
ZhangHuan: Contemporary China, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
ZhangHuan: Force of Stillness: Embodying Meditation in Creative Practice, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Envisions: Sculptures @ the Garden City, Clifford Square, Singapore
2017
ZhangHuan: What Does It Mean to Be Universal? Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, Abu Dhabi, The United Arab Emirates
ZhangHuan: The New Frontiers of Painting, Stelline Foundation, Milan, Italy
ZhangHuan: Luther and the Avant-garde, Wittenberg Old Prison, Wittenberg, Germany
ZhangHuan: Chinese Summer, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway
ZhangHuan: Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Seeking Spirituality in Contemporary Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA
ZhangHuan: Chinese Dreams, Bakalar & Paine Galleries, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, USA
ZhangHuan: La Balade pour la Paix, an Open-air Museum, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada
2018
ZhangHuan: How To See [What Isn't There], Langen Foundation, Neuss, Germany
ZhangHuan: Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
ZhangHuan: The Non-community, CentroCentro, Madrid, Spain
ZhangHuan: Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
ZhangHuan: Land: Zhang Huan and Li Binyuan, MoMA PS1, New York, USA
ZhangHuan: Awakening: Art in Society in Asia, 1960s-1990s, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
ZhangHuan: Shanghai Beat: The Dynamism of Contemporary Art Scene in Shanghai, Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan