VIVIEN ZHANG
Vivien Zhang (b. 1990, Beijing) presents a distinctive visual language which interweaves the personal and the collective. Drawing on diverse source material – from world map projections and mathematical shapes to kilim patterns and organic forms – Zhang challenges established modes of perception and interpretation within contemporary narratives and visual culture. Informed by her upbringing in China, Kenya and Thailand, as well as her shifting relationship to London, where she currently lives and works, Zhang explores themes of identity, linguistics, social codes and the complexities of visual translation in her practice, within the context of an increasingly globalised and digital world.
Rendered primarily in oil and acrylic, her intricate compositions blur boundaries between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the digital and the painterly, reality and reproduction, to construct layered, often shifting geographies. Alluding to themes of migration and classification in her recent work, the artist draws specifically on species of migrating butterflies and flowers that present problems in their taxonomic nomenclature. The artist’s motifs are abstracted, fragmented and recontextualised, emphasising secondary characteristics over original archetypes. Continually presenting unexpected formal juxtapositions within her work, Zhang’s process involves a deliberate layering of forms and contradictions, both visual and formal, underscoring an interest in disrupting established assumptions.
‘I think of the work as [a] site for assemblage, where multiple influences and references come together. Different registers of paint and visual fragments intersect, often colliding with one another […] provoking questions about the hierarchies within a painting. What is prioritised, what demands attention?’
V. Zhang, in conversation with K. Anand, ‘Interview: Vivien Zhang on “Phantom Memories” and the Element of Chance’, in Something Curated, 2024
Image: to be forgotten (lthomia) 2, 2025, acrylic and oil on linen, 180 x 210 cm.; 70 7/8 x 82 5/8 in. Photo: Eva Herzog
Selected Works
Selected Institutional Exhibitions
Biography
VITA
1990
Born in Beijing, China
2012
B.F.A., Slade School of Fine Art, London
2014
M.A. Painting, Royal College of Art, London
Lives and works in London, UK
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Arts Council Collection, London
By Art Matters, Hangzhou
CC Foundation, Shanghai
Chadwell Collection, London
De Heus-Zomer Collection, Amsterdam
Groeninghe Art Collection, Bruges
He Art Museum, Foshan
ICA Miami
K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong
Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker
Long Museum, Shanghai
Longlati Foundation, Hong Kong
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Museum Azman, Kuala Lumpur
Inimá de Paula Museum, Belo Horizonte
Nanjo Art Museum, Okinawa
Royal College of Art, London
Sammlung Goetz, Munich
Shah Garg Foundation, New York
Song Art Museum, Beijing
Start Museum, Shanghai
The Perimeter, London
Tanoto Art Foundation, Singapore
White Rabbit Collection, Sydney
Yageo Foundation, Taipei
Yi Art Institute, Hefei
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025
Paths Unseen
Aranya Art Center, Beidaihe
2024
Flat Earth
Pilar Corrias, London
2022
undo undo undo
Pilar Corrias, London
2021
Lorem Ipsum
Long March Space, Beijing
2020
New Peril
TANK Shanghai
Soft Borders
Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai
2018
Codescape
Long March Space, Beijing
Uzumaki
House of Egorn, Berlin
2017
Vivien Zhang
curated by Sarah McCrory
Monteverdi, Castiglioncello del Trinoro
2016
Cavity Drift
Galerie Huit, Hong Kong
2015
Vivien Zhang | The Chadwell Award Exhibition
PSW Project Space, London
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
The Roots Know More
He Art Museum, Foshan
Abstraction (Re)Creation – 20 Under 40
X Museum, Beijing
360°: Why We Paint? Chapter II
Luigi Pecci Contemporary Art Center, Centro Pecci
360°: Why We Paint? Chapter I
BY ART MATTERS, Hangzhou
2024
50-90: The Tenth Anniversary of the Long Museum
Long Museum, Shanghai
Dream Screen
Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul
Abstraction (re)creation – 20 under 40
Le Consortium, Dijon, travelled to:
X Museum, Beijing
Nature Painting Nature, curated by Lydia Yee
Pilar Corrias, London
Boundless Reverie: Chinese Savoir-Faire and Contemporary Art
K11 Foundation, Hong Kong
2023
Steadfastly Revise for the Standards in Nonproductive Construction, curated by Evonne Jiawei Yuan
Long March Space, Beijing
Dust Piles Us Up, curated by Sun Yitian
Longlati Foundation at SUHE HAUS, Shanghai
Let The Sunshine In
Pilar Corrias, London
2022
Barbe À Papa, curated by Cédric Fauq
CAPC Musée d'art Contemporain de Bordeaux
The Infinite Conversation, curated by Zhu Zhu
1st Beijing Biennial
The Disconnected Generation
Song Art Museum, Beijing
2021
Mixing It Up: Painting Today
Hayward Gallery, London
Ex Roma V
APT Gallery, London
2020
after image
Mamoth, London
Fortune Teller: The Undefinable Youth Project I
Wanying Art Museum, Shijiazhuang
L'Heure Bleue (Part II)
PLUS-ONE Gallery and Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp
2019
Echo Chamber
PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp
Generation Y
Platform Foundation, London
To Cite A Body
Sluice, London
2018
BE:YO:ND
PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp
Bone Memory
Lychee One, London
2017
Digital Natives: Vivien Zhang and Thomas van Linge
The RYDER, London
High Noon, curated by Adrienne Drake, Sarah Linford and Donatella Saroli
Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma
Referencing Alexander Calder
Eli Klein Gallery, New York
June Mostra
British School at Rome
All As Long Distance Neighbours, curated by Marialuisa Pastò
SOYUZ, Pescara
March Mostra
British School at Rome
2016
Trembling Surfaces
Long March Space, Beijing
South of Meaning: Travis Jeppesen and Vivien Zhang
House of Egorn, Berlin
Beyond Borders
Blain | Southern, London
December Mostra
British School at Rome
Cue Collision
House of Egorn London Lounge
Sunny Side Up!
Rook & Raven, London
PAPER | PUBLICATION | PERFORMANCE
Lychee One, London
2015
Deeper Bite: Teresita Dennis and Vivien Zhang
Lychee One, London
Repeat/Spiral
Renke Art Centre, Hangzhou
Visions from a New Generation
Lane Crawford, Shanghai
East London Painting Prize
The Rum Factory, London
Mapping in Memory
House of Egorn, Berlin
2014
Laurence Owen and Vivien Zhang
Rook & Raven, London
Saatchi New Sensations
Victoria House, London
2013
ASYAAF (Asian Students and Young Artists Art Festival)
Cultural Station 284, Seoul
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Rugoff, et al., Mixing It Up: Painting Today, exh. cat., London: Hayward Gallery Publishing, 2021
A. French, ed., The Anomie Review of Contemporary British Painting 3, London: Anomie Publishing, 2024
P. Eleey and G. Lee, Dream Screen, exh. cat., Leeum Museum of Art, Leeum; Leeum: Leeum Museum of Art / Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, 2025
Videos
Selected Press
Something Curated October 2024
Elephant Magazine October 2024
Turps Banana December 2022
Harper’s Bazaar April 2022
émergent magazine 2022
ArtAsiaPacific Magazine May / June 2020
Elephant Magazine Spring 2017
