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.
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
