Current
ZHAO ZHAO
b.1982, Xinjiang, China
Zhao Zhao graduated from the Xinjiang Institute of the Arts in 2003 and later attended the Beijing Film Academy. Now he is regarded a significant figure among the young Post-80s generation of contemporary Chinese artists – Zhao Zhao’s work is often associated with anti-authoritarian or non-conformist tendencies, renowned for confronting existing ideological structures and exercising the power of individual free will in his work.
His recent solo exhibitions includes: Green, Song Art Museum, Beijing, 2019; In Extremis – Art Basel Hong Kong Encounters Project, Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, 2019; Project Taklamakan in Xinjiang – Art Basel Hong Kong Project, Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, 2017.
His recent group exhibitions include: A Fairy Tale in Red Times: Works from the White Rabbit Collection, NGV, Melbourne, Australia, 2019; The Street. Where The World Is Made, MAXXI, Rome, Italy, 2018 ; Islands, Constellations and Galapagos ,The Sixth Edition of the Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, 2017; The Exhibition of Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2016, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, 2017; Post-sense Sensibility: Trepidation and Will, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, 2016; Everyday Legend, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, 2016; Spirit, PAC PADIGLIONE D‘ARTE CONTEMPORANEA, Milan, 2015; ZERO TOLERANCE , MoMA-The Museum of Modern Art PS1, New York, 2014.
His provocative, multidisciplinary artistic practice has garnered him international attention in recent years with critically-acclaimed exhibitions across China, North America and Europe as an ‘artist to watch’. In 2017, artist was nominated “Young Artist of the Year” of AAC (Award of Art China). In 2019, he won “Artist of the Year” of AAC (Award of Art China).
Tang Contemporary Art
Art Basel Hong Kong 2019 Encounter Section
NATURAL SHAPES AND VIOLENT FORCES IN ZHAO ZHAO’S “CONTROL”
Artist Zhao Zhao maps fissures in the fabric of consciousness and society in a new show at Roberts Projects Los Angeles.
True to the gospel of minimalism, the simplicity of presentation obscures the complexity of process, tradition and all manner of existential questions in the work of Zhao Zhao. Step back from these large-scale, finely detailed works; crook your head if need be and then zoom all the way in. In the spareness of that moment, you will find the connections...
The Struggles of Installing Large-Scale Artworks in China
With the opening of H Queen’s in Hong Kong, the region has seen an influx of famed international galleries, but what’s really driven the development of the art market in the city is the presence of Asia’s largest art fair, Art Basel Hong Kong.This year, Encounters curator Alexie Glass-Kantor has put together works by a diverse range of artists and influences, including South Korean sculptor Lee Bul, Japanese installation artist Chiharu Shiota, Scandinavian duo Elmgreen & Dragset and Chinese artist Zhao Zhao. This sample set of four artists is wildly different, with Shiota’s yarn-based installations standing in stark contrast to Zhao’s floor work, which pays homage to dead cats on the streets of Beijing.
“One Second • One Year”: Chinese artist Zhao Zhao’s depictions of time
Chinese contemporary artist Zhao Zhao’s “One Second” series of drawings and paintings seek to establish a dialogue about depictions of time. Art Radar takes a look at Zhao Zhao’s recent exhibition at H Queen’s in Hong Kong, curated by Barbara Pollack, Professor at New York’s School of Visual Art, for Tang Contemporary.In 2015, Ai Weiwei wrote the following statement about Chinese-born, multidisciplinary artist Zhao Zhao: Today, Zhao Zhao is in a good state of mind. He still goes out looking for trouble where there is none. He still gets bored… Zhao Zhao has attitude, and this attitude of his, neither too hot nor too cold, is going to take him far...
Cui Cancan | Zhao Zhao: Hong Kong Solo Exhibition
Between 2013 and 2016, Zhao Zhao collected a number of colonial-era safes from Tianjin and Shanghai. He was intensely interested in their production. Why were they needed? What caused such insecurity? Zhao Zhao recreated these safes in solid marble of similar size and scale. He had stripped the safes of their functionality, retaining only their solemn and dignified appearance. In a similar approach, he reconstructed a cheap, disposable lighter as a work of ornamental jade, spending a tremendous amount of time and resources in order to detach the spirit from the object, thus elevating it to a new dimension beyond its practical, basic purpose. From that point on, everything it represented entered into a new realm...