Zhang Hui (b. 1967, Heilongjiang Province) is a significant member of the post-89 generation of Chinese artists trained in stage and set design at the Central Drama Academy in Beijing.? Whether it is the act of performance itself, or human interrelationships evidenced through painting and the construction of sculptural installation, Zhang Hui’s practice makes continual reference to theatricality, as a sense of physical awareness, but also as a mental space through which we further understand our relationship to ideas of lived and imagined realities. He was a key figure, alongside prominent artists such as Liu Wei, Zhu Yu and Qiu Zhijie, in the collaborative artistic activities of the ‘Post Sense: Sensibility’ Group of the late 1990s.

Zhang Hui searches for the space where reality and the subconscious, the normal and the abnormal interact. In his recent work, Zhang continues his performative exploration of duration and its relationship to ideas of time and space through an investigation of painting. Zhang’s subjects move from the rituals of banality which are anchored in everyday life, to the quest for dreaming – two primary components of this artist’s evocative dramas. His gestural surfaces scale the human on a spiritual and psychological level, employing elements of the theatrical (through color and scale) to create a dreamscape whereby his subject’s vulnerability is exposed to the viewer, often triggered by lines of text, seemingly borrowed from traditional fairytales and folkloric narratives, floating amid the landscape.?

Zhang Hui was most recently featured in ‘Farewell to Postcolonialism: the Third Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China, 2008; ‘Partial Zones’, Long March Space, Beijing, China (solo), 2007; ‘Buzz…,’ Multimedia performance, Taipei Museum of Art, Kao-Chung Museum of Art, Taipei, Taiwan, 2005 and Shanghai Biennale, China, 2004; . His performative explorations have taken place extensively across China and throughout Asia and the USA.

Education School of Performing Arts, Central Drama Academy, Beijing (1986 - 1991)

Residence
Lives and works in Beijing

Selected Exhibitions
2008
Farewell to Postcolonialism: the Third Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Long March Capital III, Long March Space, Beijing, China
2006
Partial Zones, Long March Space, Beijing, China (Solo)
What Are They Doing? Installation Exhibition with Yixiangju Group, Fun Art Space, Beijing, China
Whereabouts of Ding Yuzhong Oct. 1-3, multimedia performance by Yixiangju Group, Beijing, China
Happy Days!, installation/multimedia performance by Yixiangju Group, Long March Space, Beijing, China
2005
Glass Menagerie, installation exhibition with Yu Jia, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China
Time Passes Merrily By, Installation, Platform China, Beijing, China
Interval, Multimedia performance with Yixiangju Group, Platform China, Beijing, China
Buzz…, Multimedia performance, Taipei Museum of Art, Kao-Chung Museum of Art, Taipei, Taiwan
Jumping On End, Multimedia performance, New York, USA
Representative Time, Multimedia performance, Beijing, China
Maze, Multimedia performance with Yixiangju Group and China Academy of Art, Shanghai, China
Carryingout the Marriage, Multimedia performance, Beijing, China
2004
Established – Yixiangju Group
Surplus Fun, Installation, Proposal Center, Beijing, China
Design and musical score for, Can You Hear Our Sound, Beijing Tianqiao Theater, China
Unique Perspective, Multimedia performance, as part of Shanghai Biennale, China
Artistic Director for movie – Ninth Solar Term
Set design – Mask, Beijing Renyi Experimental Theater, China
Chorus, Multimedia performance, Left Wing exhibition, Beijing, China
2003
Drowned 4, performance/installation collaboration with Shi Qing, Eulogy of Fun Contemporary Art Exhibition, Nanjing, China
Drowned 3, performance/installation collaboration with Shi Qing, Record of the Trojan Horse Contemporary Art Exhibition, Nanjing, China
No Place to Park or Chinese Kung-fu, installation, Water, Beijing, China
District of Pine and Cranes, Installation, Rebuild 798, Factory 798, Beijing, China
PQ.03, International Performing Arts Exhibition, design of National Pavilion, China
Hamlet, Performance/Installation, Post sense-sensibility ,Inside story, Beijing Seven- Color Theatre Beijing, China
2002
Set design, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter of the Clown, China Children’s Art Theater, China
China, Japan, Korea Theater Exchange Exhibition, Seoul, Korea
My Sun!, Installation, performance, Non-Linear Narrative, Hangzhou, China
Drowned Parts 1 & 2, collaboration with Shi Qing, Retribution, Beijing, China
2001
Kill Me and I Still Don’t Want to Hear Your Sound, installation/performance, Sound 2 Contemporary Art Exhibition, Beijing, China
Inaugural Exhibition of Mustard Seed Garden, Beijing, China
Lots of People Here, multimedia installation, New Starting Point Contemporary Art Exhibition, Beijing, China
I’m in Your Heart, multimedia installation, Manic Ecstasy Post Sensibility, Beijing, China
2000
Lost Sound, multimedia installation, Sound Installation Art Exhibition, Beijing, China
Quietly Laying at Home in the Afternoon, installation, Family, Shanghai, China
Set design, Screen, Brussels, Belgium; Brighton, UK; as part of Brussels International Art Festival and Brighton International Art Festival
1999
Set design and multimedia support, Advance, Jazz, Poly Theater, Beijing, China
1998
Anti-Vision, Beijing, China
1995
PQ95 Prague International Performing Arts Exhibition, Prague, Czech Republic
Directed Top Floor, Renyi Theater, Beijing, China
1993
Performance – From Picasso: with Love, Beijing, China
Exhibition of Paintings, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
1992
Set design, Thinking of Worldly Pleasures, Beijing, China; Tokyo, Yokohama, Japan