About the Artist
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Zhang Yu was born in Beijing, China. She graduated from Beijing Science Technology College with a degree in Art Design in 1994, and continued her study at the Central Academy of Fine Art for another two years to refine her master program training in oil painting. After leaving the academy, she developed her own style and created works that reflect the political climate of the China at that period. Her subjects included political figure such as Mao’s wife Jiang Qing and a series on a new generation of empowered Chinese city girls, these paintings mirrored China as an emerging superpower. At the same time, Chinese contemporary art was being recognized on the international level for the first time.
In 1998, Yu relocated to the United States. She began to explore her art within a new culture and develop her vision through everyday life. A sense of self-identity began to emerge in her paintings. Subjects such as female figures, popular cultures and media permeated in her works. By the time she began her MFA studies at the City College of New York in 2007, her paintings matured and she established a unique style that challenges the notions of ideal beauty and self-identity. Yu has received recognition such as the Koan J. Baysa Award in 2008. During her career, Yu has numerous solo and group shows in the United States, Japan and China. She has shown in Nasu-Kougen Museum, Japan; International Arts Festival ShangHai, China; and many galleries in New York City area including Gallery 456, Walter Wickiser Gallery, Hans Weiss (Ct), Thomas Erben Gallery, Artists Space, Exit Art, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts and White Box. Zhang Yu currently lives and works in New York. |
Statement
I believe making art is a process of self-examination. I feel that to depict other people is also to question self. Autobiography is central to my role as artist, evoking my life through the portrayal of personalities from the collective imagination – and using my own snapshots, movie characters, and figures in magazines. These elements bring my immediate interests and fantasies into my work. The principle of my work is to pursue the simple and candid, to stress the primal aspects and desires of human beings.
My current work deals with distortion of the female figure. The elongated figures are representative of my emotions and my imagination. The figures in my work have abandoned their exterior characteristics and replaced these with their natural interior essence. This is simultaneously a process of decrease and consolidation. Then I paint people , I depict them as blind, because I think the human eye creates illusions. The real, the essence of human nature can only be seen from your inner world.
To achieve this, I minimize my colors to a limit point to focus on the character of each individual. I use simple colored tone to bring the intensity of the subject forward and to connect with the complexities of the human experience. The light colored figure, dehumanized eyes and illuminated background reflect a collection of my life experiences.
My current work deals with distortion of the female figure. The elongated figures are representative of my emotions and my imagination. The figures in my work have abandoned their exterior characteristics and replaced these with their natural interior essence. This is simultaneously a process of decrease and consolidation. Then I paint people , I depict them as blind, because I think the human eye creates illusions. The real, the essence of human nature can only be seen from your inner world.
To achieve this, I minimize my colors to a limit point to focus on the character of each individual. I use simple colored tone to bring the intensity of the subject forward and to connect with the complexities of the human experience. The light colored figure, dehumanized eyes and illuminated background reflect a collection of my life experiences.
Writings
Zhang Yu is an emerging artist who fits very well into the ongoing development of post-Mao experimental work,which is now thoroughly globalized in its themes, techniques, and critical concerns. Indeed, she is already an active member of the international Chinese art community, and is considered a peer by some of the best-known names in the field. Her work, exceptionally strong in draftsmanship and showing a fine painterly potential, manifests several signature motifs (the long-necked woman, for example) of the sort that have won wide recognition for her slightly older colleagues. I believe that Zhang Yu is likely to make a notable contribution to the current art scene—in the U.S., China and elsewhere—as she continues to hone her skills and fully explore her vision.
Richard Vine Senior Editor, Art in America magazine, and author of the book New China, New Art.
Richard Vine Senior Editor, Art in America magazine, and author of the book New China, New Art.