About Zhang Hongbo
Zhang Hongbo is a sculptor and painter. He attended the Central Academy of Arts (now: Fine Art Academy, Tsinghua University). And taught at the Fine Arts Department of Guizhou University for Nationalities and has lived in Beijing ever since.
He was mainly influenced by growing up in the 1980s. This generation drew inspiration from rapidly growing global capitalism, political unrest, widespread wealth disparities, global mass media and distinctive fashion and music – hip-hop and electronic music.
The 1980s also witnessed the immense famines in Africa, the height of the Cold War and its end as marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall. Influential art movements included Neo Geo, The Pictures Generation and the international trend of neo-expressionism manifested in Germany, the United States and Italy – (better known there as Transavanguardia).
These were the years in which artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Jörg Immendorf, Enzo Cucchi, Francesco Clemente and Julian Schnabel made breakthroughs and caused excitement. Street art and graffiti gradually gained recognition, with artists such as Keith Haring and Michel Basquiat.
From the 90s onwards, Zang Hongbo has exhibited in galleries and museums in Sidney, Beijing, Zurich, Brussels and Rotterdam, among others.
Many of Zang Hongbo’s works give the viewer the experience that a laughing mirror stands between viewer and object. The enormous sculpture Fat Lady, which was exhibited during the first edition of ART ZUID (2009), is a good representation of this.
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