Vivien Zhang

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Vivien Zhang (b.1990, Beijing) grew up in China, Kenya and Thailand, and currently works and lives in London. She received her MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (London) in 2014, after completing her undergraduate degree at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL (London) in 2012. Zhang’s paintings present a cultural and geographical fluidity, which interrogates the palimpsest nature of contemporary culture and the paradoxes of our information age. As a digital native, Zhang explores being a passive recipient in a growing digital world, and makes apparent the fragmented and sporadic ways in which we consume information. One device used is alternating painterly layers – a direct response to the superimposed nature of digital media. As we experience an expanding abundance of visual materials, Zhang queries the artist’s authorship and authority in the use of their derivations and iterations, as well as contradictions of this information age.

Her recent solo exhibitions include “Lorem Ipsum”, Long March Space, Beijing (2021); “New Peril”, TANK Shanghai, Shanghai (2020); “Soft Borders”, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2020); “Codescape”, Long March Space, Beijing (2018); “Uzumaki”, House of Egorn, Berlin (2018); “Art Rotterdam”, House of Egorn, Rotterdam (2018); “Solo Exhibition”, MiArt, Milan (2017); “Cavity Drift: Vivien Zhang”, Galerie Huit, Hong Kong (2016); “Vivien Zhang | Surf the Anodyne: the Chadwell Award 2014-15 Exhibition”, The Rum Factory, London (2015).

Recent group exhibitions include “THE DISCONNECTED GENERATION”, Song Art Museum, Beijing (2022); “Mixing It Up: Painting Today”, Hayward Gallery, London (2021); “Generation Y”, Platform Foundation, London (2019); “Digital Natives: Vivien Zhang and Thomas van Linge”, The RYDER Projects, London (2017), among others. In 2017, Vivien Zhang was featured in Forbes 30 under 30 Asia: The Arts. She is the recipient of the Abbey Award at the British School at Rome (2016-17) and the Chadwell Award (2014-15).