Zhang Zhenyu was born in the central province of Hunan in 1974. He attended Central Academy of Fine Arts, and lives and works in Beijing.
Zhang Zhenyu is one of a young generation of Chinese artists engaged in converting simple materials into conceptual art forms. His pieces play with the idea of (re)use. One of his most important series involved taking dust from city streets, glueing it to canvas in layer after layer, then polishing the surface to a high sheen that resembles a kind of smoky bronze. The intensely beautiful dust paintings serve as a comment on a material that is omnipresent, an intimate part of life – but no longer natural, since it is a by-product of pollution, construction and rapid urban development.
In 2008 Zhang spent several hours a day, over the course of a year, scratching out the text on the pages of the China Daily newspaper. He meticulously obliterated headlines, columns of newsprint and and photographs. It was a contemplative endeavour that transformed information through the careful annihilation of the content.
Zhang’s exhibitions include the 2nd Nanjing International Art Festival (2015); Post-Calligraphy in Chinese Contemporary Art, Kunstraum Villa Friede, Bonn (2015); Within Sight–Chinese New Painting at Post-Financial Crisis Era, Fondation Taylor, Paris (2015); Blow-UP–Chinese New Painting at Post-Financial Crisis Era, Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art, Chongqing Changjiang (2015); Early abstraction in China 1978-1992, Yallay Gallery, Hong Kong (2015); Safe House, Beijing; Vortex, ShanghART, Shanghai (2017); Artificial Garden, Today Art Museum, Beijing (2017); High Speed Form, OCAT Shanghai (2019).