Zhang Yunyao

If painting is a process of energy and expression, and each stroke of the brush is a metaphor for passion and pain, then Zhang Yunyao’s “painting” is a calm and “painless” pursuit. It is as if the direct stimulation of the body’s faculties has been inhibited, lulling the sensory metaphor of painting into a state of dormancy.

Over the last few years, Zhang Yunyao has been developing a clearer and clearer awareness of the interval between concept and image where his work inhabits. On the one hand, this awareness is an outgrowth of a more relevant motif -- one involving the study and repeated description of the human form and its imagery. On the other hand, the artist has become a maestro of the medium of felt, which has been a mainstay of his long-term practice -- an understanding that transcends technique, and includes a methodological and conceptual instinct borne of practice. Working with felt as a canvas, Zhang is “voluntarily forced” into an irreversible method of painting, which demands rigorous execution and an ironfisted grasp of every detail. Within this process, which Zhang has coined “anti-painting,” execution outweighs “lyricism.” The artist does not “express” form via line and brushstroke, rather, he “maps out” the image by tracing and filing it in.

Zhang Yunyao graduated from the Department of Oil Painting, Academy of Fine Arts at Shanghai Normal University (2007). By incorporating felt as the support for the medium of painting, he attempts to explore the unfixed meaning of emotions and desires. His works have been widely exhibited in different institutions, including chi K11 art museum (Shanghai, 2016), CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, 2015), Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai (Shanghai, 2013), etc. His solo exhibitions include“Palace of Extasy”( Don Gallery, Shanghai, 2019),“Skin Gesture Body” (Don Gallery, Shanghai, 2017), “Nec Spe, Nec Metu” (Perrotin, Hong Kong, 2017), “After Evensong” (Don Gallery, Shanghai, 2015), “Touch Point” (01100001 Gallery, Beijing, 2013), “Mirage” (Don Gallery, Shanghai, 2013), “Paradbox” (Don Gallery, Shanghai, 2011).