ZHANG Peili

Profile

Zhang Peili is internationally recognized as the first Chinese video artist, and within Mainland China, who is appreciated as most influential figure in the development of experimental art practices both as an artist and as the dean of the New Media department of the China Academy of Fine Art in Hangzhou. He is one of the most respected representatives of the 1985 New Wave Movement in China. Zhang set out his career as a conceptual painter, but soon chose video, new media installation and photography to be his media of artistic practice. In his works, Zhang Peili addresses the subjects of the individual and power relations within the Chinse society and beyond. His earlier works deal with the aesthetics of boredom and have treated themes of social and political control. Zhang Peili's works are implicitly political, and he is famous for his incisive use of irony that maintains a consistent mocking tone without descending into satire.

Born in Hangzhou in 1957. Lives and works in Hangzhou and Shanghai. Recent solo exhibition: "Zhang Peili: Record. Repeat," The Art Institute Chicago, 2017, Recent group exhibitions: "Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World," Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2017-2018, "Wrap Around the Time: Remembrance Exhibition for Nam Jun Paik's 10th Anniversary," Nam June Pail Art Center, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, 2015, "Passage to History: 20 Years of La Biennale di Venezia and Chinese Contemporary Art" The 55th Venice Biennale 2013, "AVANT-GARDE CHINA: Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, The National Art Center, Tokyo, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, 2008 - 2009, "HAPPINESS: A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR ART AND LIFE," Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2003, "Alors, la Chine?" Pompidou Centre, Paris, 2003, "Inside Out: New Chinese Art," P.S.I Contemporary Art Center, New York, 1998.