ZHANG WEI
Zhang Wei (b. 1952) is regarded as one of the first abstract painters in China. Beginning his career in the 1970s as part of the unofficial artist collective Wuming, Zhang followed the groups intent to express an individual artistic approach apart from the established art forms at that time. Encounters with western Abstract Expressionism and its protagonists such as Jackson Pollock and Robert Rauschenberg in the early 80’s, offered Zhang a different view on his own artistic practice and encouraged his aim for personal freedom of expression by dedicating himself to a non-representational form. His paintings pick up particularly the immediate and intuitive approaches of action painting. Nevertheless, alongside references to western modern painting, Zhang’s works also allude to traditional Chinese ink and calligraphy techniques. Similarly, his practice reminds of the Asian tradition of “Qi”, that describes painting as a process of releasing energy when ink and paper touch through the brush.
‘Zhang Wei has a dramatic visual language and has a strikingly self-possessed personality, the optical impact of his canvases register instantaneously. Through boldly applied paint and bright colors, the movement of the artist’s brush is visible on canvas, it brings the viewer bodily awareness – the conditions and processes by which Zhang Wei’s applied paint becomes essential to our appreciation of his works. […] He describes his style as wu xing – spontaneous, enlightened mode of creativity. Action Painting falls under the same descriptive vocabulary. But how does Zhang Wei know when a painting is complete? He tells me that his fear is of “painting a canvas to death”. He strives instead for a more flexible sense of “incompleteness”, and in this sense, negative space in the form of the picture surface is integral to his compositions.’
L. Ambrozy, ‘Zhang Wei and Abstraction’, in Zhang Wei. The Abstract Paintings, Boers-Li Gallery, 2013
Image: Z-AC1638, 2016, oil on linen, 220 x 180 cm.; 86 5/8 x 70 7/8 in. Photo: Yang Chao Photography Studio, Beijing, China
Selected Works
Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
Selected Institutional Exhibitions
Biography
VITA
1952
Born in Beijing, China
Lives and works in Beijing, China
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
M+Sigg Collection, Hong Kong
The Art Institute of Chicago
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Colors of Emotions
Galerie Krizinger, Vienna
2021
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris
2019
Stiftung zur Förderung zeitgenössischer Kunst in Weidingen, Eifel
Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna
2018
Artist Book
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
2016
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
New Paintings 2014–2016
Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing
Taxi Driver
The Space of DRC No.12
, Beijing
2012
Abstract Paintings 1979–2012
Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing
2010
2010 Zhang Wei: My life in Beijing-1970s, My life in New York-1990s
Shuimu Contemporary Art Space, Beijing
2007
Serendipity
Courtyard Gallery, Beijing
2006
Zhang Wei 1985–1991
TRA Gallery, Beijing
1998
Parish Hadley Gallery, New York
1990
Z Gallery, New York
1987
Carolyn Hill Gallery, New York
Sabrina Fung Gallery, New York
1986
Zhang Wei's Paintings
Wai Jiao Gong Yu, Beijing
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Gruppendynamik: Kollektive der Moderne
Lenbachhaus, Munich
2021
Focus China. Works from Collection Wemhöner
Mönchehaus Museum Goslar
2020
Spring
Almine Rech, Shanghai
2018
Artists Books Editions. Publications by Yvon Lambert and Hans Werner Holzwarth
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
Brush and Beyond
Boers-Li Gallery, New York
2017
Salon Salon: Fine Art Practices from 1972 to 1982 in Profile – A Beijing Perspective
Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing
Uncharted Waters
Boers-Li Gallery, New York
2016
M+ Sigg Collection. Four Decades of Chinese Contemporary Art
ArtisTree, Hong Kong
2015
The Civil Power
Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing
2014
Secret Signs. Calligraphy in Chinese Contemporary Art
Deichtorhallen, Hamburg
Right is Wrong / Four Decades of Chinese Art from the M+ Sigg Collection
Bildmuseet Umeå University, Umeå
Cases of Chinese Abstract Art - the third series
YQK Deshan Art Space, Beijing
The Un-officials | Art before 85
Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing
New Works #1-From the Issue of Art to the Issue of Position: Echoes of Socialist Realism
Shenzhen OCT Contemporary Art Terminal
2013
Light before Dawn: Unofficial Chinese Art 1974-1985
Asia Society Hong Kong Center
2011
Blooming in the Shadows: Unofficial Chinese Art, 1974-1985
China Institute Gallery, New York
Breaking Away – an Abstract Art Exhibition
Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing
2010
Spring Equinox
Yuan Art Museum, Beijing
Array with No Object
Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan
2008
Crossroads
Opera Gallery Singapore, Singapore
Chinese Fantasies
Found Museum, Beijing
The Love of Art - Collecting-Contemporary Art in China
Today Art Museum, Beijing
Apartment Art in China 1970s–1990s
Shuimu Art Space, Beijing
Art and China's Revolution
Asia Society Museum, New York
Towards the Post-abstract
PIFO New Art Studios, Beijing
Cross-Reference
Shuimu Art Space, Beijing
Moving On: Chinese Contemporary Art in London & St. Moritz
Riccardo Rossi, London
Yi School: Thirty Years of Chinese Abstraction
Today Art Museum, Beijing, travelled to;
Caixa Forum Barcelona
2007
No U-turn-Segments of Chinese avant-garde art
TRA Gallery, Beijing
Retrospective Exhibition of the NO Name Group
Guangdong Art Museum, Guandzhou, travelled to;
Zendai MoMA, Shanghai
2006
Retrospective Exhibition of the NO Name Group
TRA Art Gallery, Beijing
1998
Global Roots: Chinese Artists Working in New York
Stewart Center Gallery, Purdue University, West Lafayette
1987
Avant-Garde Chinese Art
Art Gallery of State University NY, Albany
1986
Avant-Garde Chinese Art
Art Gallery of Vassar College, Poughkeepsie
1985
Graffiti Exhibition of Ten Artists
Chaoyang Theater, Beijing
1983
Abstract Works
Tuanjie Hu, Beijing
1979
No Name Art Group Exhibition
Beihai Park, Beijing
1974
Underground Exhibition of Eleven Artists
Fusuijing Building, Beijing
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Monographs
Boers-Li Gallery (Ed.): Zhang Wei New Paintings 2014–2016, Beijing, 2016
Boers-Li Gallery (Ed.): Zhang Wei The Abstract Paintings, Beijing, 2013
Shuimu Art Space (Ed.): Zhang Wei: My Life in New York 1990s, My Life in Beijing 1970s, Beijing, 2010
Publications of the Artist
Zhang Wei, Artist Book, Berlin, 2017 (H2P I Hetzler Holzwarth Publications)
Others
The Art Institute of Chicago (Ed.): Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection, Chicago, 2017
Publications
Zhang Wei
Boers-Li Gallery Beijing | New York / Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris | London / Holzwarth Publications, Berlin 2019
With texts by He Guiyan, Hans Werner Holzwarth and a conversation between Zhang Wei and Colin Siyuan Chinnery
Out of stock
Zhang Wei: Artist Book
H2P I Hetzler Holzwarth Publications, Berlin 2017
Edition of 40 copies, plus 10 H.C., each with a cover hand-painted by the artist
Copies nos. 1–10 additionally with a painted shovel blade, copies nos. 11–20 with a painted trowel
Zhang Wei
Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris / Holzwarth Publications, Berlin 2017
With texts by Colin Chinnery and Waling Boers
€ 45.00
Selected Press
Trierischer Volksfreund July 2019
Trierischer Volksfreund July 2019