Zhang's avant-garde lithographs come to town

An exhibition featuring lithographs by Zhang Xiaogang, one of the most renowned Chinese contemporary artists, runs at the Bund Finance Center through January 15.

Zhang, a pre-eminent member of the contemporary Chinese avant-garde, is best known for his “Big Family” series that he’s been working on since 1993.

The inspiration for these works comes from old family photographs. His surreal, stylized portraits created in smoothly rendered oil paint maintain a formal, posed esthetic, blending the meaning of family, memories and Chinese history.

Born in 1958 in Kunming, southwest China’s Yunnan Province, Zhang studied painting at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in Chongqing.

In his paintings, he captures the superficial homogeneity of the collective through smooth, unblemished faces with staring eyes. Glasses, a mole, imperfect teeth or a wisp of hair gone astray unwittingly reveal individual differences.

Twenty limited-edition lithographs themed “The Storyteller’s Enchantments of Zhang Xiaogang,” based on the tableau of Zhang’s “Big Family” series, plus 20 poems written by Spain’s Fernando Arrabal Teran, will be auctioned by HOWstore via WeChat on January 1 and 2.

Exhibition info

Dates: Through January 15, 10am-10pm
Venue: Bund Finance Center
Address: 2F-S204, 600 Zhongshan Road E2