Zhang trained at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Design. After studying painting in China, he went to Italy, where he discovered graffiti art. He was the only graffiti artist in Beijing throughout the early 1990s, and is the first artist since Keith Haring and Jackson Pollock to be given the cover of Time magazine.
Zhang dali
Biography
From 1995 to 1998 he spray-painted over 2000 giant profiles of his own bald head on buildings throughout Beijing, placing the images alongside chāi (拆) characters painted by the city authorities to indicate that a building is scheduled for demolition. The appearance of these images became the subject of media debate in Beijing in 1998.
He has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, International Center for Photography in New York City, Les Rencontres d'Arles festival in France (2010), 18Gallery in Shanghai, Magda Danysz Gallery in Paris, Courtyard Gallery in Beijing, Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo, the 2006 Gwangju Biennale in Korea and Pékin Fine Arts in Beijing. He is represented by Pékin Fine Arts in Beijing, Kiang Gallery in Atlanta, Klein Sun Gallery in New York City and Base Gallery in Tokyo.
Zhang Dali has portrayed 100 immigrant workers in life-size resin sculptures of various postures, with a designated number, the artist's signature and the work's title "Chinese Offspring" tattooed onto each of their bodies. They are often hung upside down, indicating the uncertainty of their life and their powerlessness in changing their own fates. Zhang Dali's work actively engages with the rapidly changing environment in China. Zhang started working in portraiture as one of Beijing's first graffiti artists, spraying and carving heads into the walls of the hundreds of buildings scheduled for destruction. Working across a wide variety of media - from urban art, to archiving photographs of Mao, and large scale installations - Zhang's portraits document a contemporary social history of a culture in radical development and flux. Chinese Offspring is one of Zhang's best known works. Consisting of 15 cast resin figures suspended from the ceiling, each sculpture is a representation of a migrant construction worker, a vast underclass who contribute to the modernisation process at it most visible level. Since 2003, Zhang has made 100 of these effigies in tribute to their unsung heroism. Zhang's work not only champions the individual plights of these transient labourers, but also records one of the most important phenomena of new Chinese order: the growing schism between poverty and wealth. Zhang's figures are hung by their feet to denote their vulnerability and economic entrapment. Each bears a unique tattoo issuing them with an edition number, the Chinese Offspring project title, and the artist's signature of authentication - a normal practice in indexing art construed as a witty commentary on social engineering and population control.
Exhibition History
Solo Exhibitions
2014 "Square," Klein Sun Gallery, New York, NY
2013 “Second History,” Luxun Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Shenyang, China
2012 “Zhang Dali Retrospective,” Klein Sun Gallery, New York, NY
2011 “World’s Shadows,” Pékin Fine Arts, Beijing, China
2011 “Demolition: Second History,” The Charles Shain Library, Connecticut College, New London, CT
2011 “New Slogan,” Klein Sun Gallery, New York, NY
2010 “Extreme Reality,” Tank Loft, Chongqing Contemporary Art Center, Chonqing, China
2010 “Zhang Dali: A Second History,” Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
2010 “Zhang Dali Solo Show,” Magda Danysz / Bund 18 Gallery, Shanghai, China
2009 “Pervasion: Works by Zhang Dali (1995-2008),” He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
2009 “Il Sogno Proibito della Nuova Cina,” Palazzo Inghilterra, Turin, Italy
2008 “Slogans,” Kiang Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2008 “The Road to Freedom,” Red Star Gallery, Beijing, China
2007 “Chinese Offspring,” Chinese Contemporary Gallery, New York, NY
2006 “Zhang Dali: Image and Revision in New Chinese Photography,” Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN
2006 “A Second History,” Ferst Center for the Arts, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
2006 “Zhang Dali: A Second History,” Walsh Gallery, Chicago, IL
2005 “Sublimation,” Beijing Commune Gallery, Beijing, China
2005 “New Works by Zhang Dali,” Chinese Contemporary Gallery, London, UK
2003 “AK-47,” Galleria Il Traghetto, Venice, Italy
2003 “AK-47,” Galleria Gariboldi, Milan, Italy
2002 “Beijing’s Face,” Base Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2002 “Headlines,” Chinese Contemporary Gallery, London, UK
2000 “AK-47,” The Courtyard Gallery, Beijing, China
1999 “Dialogue,” Chinese Contemporary Gallery, London, UK
1999 “Dialogue and Demolition,” The Courtyard Gallery, Beijing, China
1994 “Rivoluzione e Violenza,” Galleria Studio 5, Bologna, Italy
1993 “Zhang Dali: Pitture a Inchiostro,” Galleria Studio 5, Bologna, Italy
1989 “Wash Painting Exhibition by Zhang Dali,” Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Beijing, China
Selected Group Exhibitions
2013
“FUCK OFF 2,” The Groniger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands
“Voice of the Unseen: Chinese Independent Art 1797/Today,” Arsenale Nord, Venice, Italy
“The Nature of Things”, Gallery Magda Danysz Shanghai, China
“Hot Pot: A Taste of Contemporary Chinese Art,” Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, VT
“RE-INK: Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Ink Wash Painting 2000 – 2012,” Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, Hubei, China; Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
"Individual Growth - Momentum of Contemporary Art," Tianjin Art Museum, Tianjin, China
“Incarnations,” Institut Confucius des Pays de la Loire d’Angers, Angers, France
"Aure and Post Aura," The First Beijing Photography Biennale, China Millennium Monument, Beijing, China
"World's Shadows," Photo Phnom Penh 2013, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
“Spectacle Reconstruction – Chinese Contemporary Art,” MODEM, Debrecen, Hungary
2012
"OMEN 2012 - Chinese New Art," Shanghai Art Museum (Meishuguan), Shanghai, China
“Raze,” Peking Fine Arts, Beijing, China
“Faking It: Manipulating Photography Before Photoshop,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
“The Unseen,” The 4th Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
“Body Double: The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture,” The Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, MI
2011
“Start from the Horizon: Chinese Contemporary Sculpture Since 1978,” Sishang Art Museum, Beijing, China
"Guanxi: Contemporary Chinese Art,” Today Art Museum, Beijing, China; Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
“New Photography 2011,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
“Speech Matters,” The 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
“Scenes from Within: Contemporary Art from China," Blackbridge Hall Gallery, Georgia College, Milledgeville, GA
“Black and White,” Zero Art Museum, Beijing, China
“The Life and Death of Buildings,” Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
“Relationship,” Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
“Self Camera,” Changwon Asia Art Festival, Seongsan Art Hall, Changwon, South Korea
“The Evolving Art,” Academy of Arts & Design at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
2010
“Is the World Real?” 6th Lianzhou International Photo Festival, Lianzhou, China
“The Original Copy: Photography of a Sculpture, 1839 to Today,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
“Exhibition Exhibition,” Castello di Rivoli Museo di Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy
“Four Dimensions,” Hong Kong Photo Festival, Hong Kong
“Zhang Dali: A Second History,” 41st Edition of Les Recontres d’Arles,” Espace Van Gogh, Arles, France
“A Decade-Long Exposure,” Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Beijing, China
“Dimensionality,” Red Star Gallery, Beijing, China
“Great Performance,” Pace Beijing, Beijing, China
“Ame de Chine,” Magda Danysz Gallery, Paris, France
“From New York to Beijing: Graffiti - Blogging in the Street - Blade and Zhang Dali,” C-Space, Beijing, China
“Re-Visioning History,” OV Gallery, Shanghai, China
“Reshaping History - Chinart from 2000-2009,” National Conference Center, Beijing, China
“China’s Soul,” Magda Danysz Gallery, Paris, France