Zhang Huan

Born in Anyang, China in 1965, Zhang Huan is a Chinese artist working in Shanghai. Graduated from Henan University in 1988, he later graduated from the Beijing School of Fine Arts in 1993.

He quickly rose to fame in 1994 following his performance "12 m2" in which he covered his body with honey and spent long hours in a public toilet before being covered with insects. Huan thus began his career as a performer. Between 1994 and 2005, he produced performances that subjected his body and its limits to ever more extreme conditions. Its performances are more and more advanced and involve more and more the public, for example "To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond". This performance, dating from 1997 and evoking the conditions of migrants' crossing, was produced in Beijing and invites about forty participants to immerse themselves naked in a lake. His stay in the United States allowed him to establish an international artistic career.

In 2005, his return to China marked a real turning point in his artistic career as he became a Buddhist. The artist abandons performances to create installations, sculptures and paintings inspired by passing time and history. The cycle of life and death is one of the most important themes for Huan. The relationship between mind, body and religious rituals are one in the art of Huan. Many of the artist's works include references to Buddha, such as “Buddha Hand" (2006), “Buddha of Steel Life" (2009), or “The Buddha of Immeasurable Life" (2012). Some of his works contain elements that evoke his performances and the conditions that his body had to face during them. Through his work, Huan mixes contemporary Chinese history with religious icons.

In addition, the artist favors the use of ash in his work (“National Day", 2009). The latter is for him the symbol of the soul and of collective memory.

The artist immortalizes through his works the history of contemporary China, the Chinese people and religious icons.

In 2014, he won the Legion of Honor prize for all of his work. The artist is represented by the Pace Gallery located in New York. His latest exhibitions have taken place in the United States, more precisely at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2019), at the New Orlean Museum of Art (2019), and at the Hermitage Museum and Gardens in Virginia (2019).