Vivien Zhang | Artist | East West Bank Art Program

Vivien Zhang’s contemporary art peels back the skin of consumption in our age of information, asking the viewer to question the flawed systems of our linguistic, visual, and taxonomic systems. Having spent her formative years in China, Kenya and Thailand, she received degrees from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, and the Royal College of Art, London. Assembling images and motifs inspired by her multi-cultural upbringing, her paintings deconstruct known concepts to create abstract, evocative images. Precise, digitally constructed sections of painting sit side-by-side with expressive washes of color which drip and pool. Recognizable images and patterns clash with passages of pure abstraction; bright, popping colors and forms mesh with receding elements; gridded patterns are interrupted by sweeping, gestural brushwork; and ordered areas delightfully dissolve into chaos. Thematically interested in ecology and taxonomy, her paintings reflect on her own experiences of migration and cultural identity. Using vibrant colors and visceral, physical shapes, her work draws the viewer into her questioning, mysterious world.

Zhang’s work has been exhibited at Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul; Le Consortium, Dijon; the Beijing Biennial, China; CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux; Hayward Gallery, London; TANK Shanghai, and many others. She was the recipient of the Abbey Award 2016-17 at the British School at Rome and was named on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in 2017. Read more