626 Zheng Jiang (1972) A graduate from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Zheng was taught by well-known avant-garde artist, Liu Xiaodong, whose influence can be seen in Zheng's painting technique. Breaking away from the conventional way of viewing, the subjects in Zheng's paintings become increasingly clear the further away the viewer stands. The work in this collection is part of the ""Begonia Patterned Glass"" series - inspired by Zheng's childhood memories of watching his family through the patterned glass, which was found in almost every home in China during the 1970s and 80s. Sadly, most of these old houses have been demolished and replaced with modern high rises. As with his first Sudden Ego series, Zheng's works represent his quest for self-identity and security in this rapidly changing, chaotic world. Zhou Ming (1961) Zhou's work is a critique of China’s New Middle Class’s tasteless manners. The New Middle Class in China have attempted to use “good taste” as a means of distinguishing themselves from the masses. However, that “good taste” has been usually associated with certain status symbols, in particular famous Western brands and popular leisure activities. China’s New Middle Class would blindly mimic things from the West in order to present themselves as members of the middle class. Meanwhile, they would pay no attention to the deeper, spiritual aspects of our traditional Chinese culture. Rather than simply satirising the New Middle Class with exaggerated, kitsch references, Zhou's work attempts to expose the difference in tastes, manners and values across the Western and Chinese cultures. Zhou Tao (1976) Zhou graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts with an MFA degree in 2006. He works with video and mixed media. One of Zhou's best known works is Mutual Exercise, in which he carries, performs with and is carried by an identically dressed friend around Guangzhou. Interacting with the people in the streets, the audience enters into a doppelganger situation exposing the binary nature of living in a city. Zhou Tiehai (1966) Zhou's conceptual projects represent the artist’s vengeance and attitude towards the selfabsorbed art market. His work’s power to amaze and provoke is the result of a host of strategies that mix antagonism with sincerity. The key ingredients that drive Zhou’s unsettling yet amusing practice includes appropriating classical imagery, generating ironic projections, proclaiming laconic yet heartfelt discourse and actively subverting painterly craft. He takes on the role of both artist and patron since many of his airbrush paintings are rendered by assistants under his supervision. He permits himself to ‘play’ with art’s historical baggage by making paintings that are simultaneously self-aware and self-abnegating, virtuosic and pop all within a single canvas. He manipulates acclaimed magazine covers for his own purposes and articulates the notion of ‘artistic agency’ within current conditions of the art world and global economy. Using iconic works by da Vinci, Goya and Ingres as well as contemporary stars like Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and Maurizio Cattelan as his models., Zhou makes selfpromotional images that subvert the established notion of how artists should look and behave. Zhu Fadong (1960) Zhu's works question the relation between men and consumer society and what is possibly left of our own identity. Inspired by the feeling of having lost in his identity to urbanization and modernization, he created “Looking for a Missing Person” (1993), in which Zhu’s ID photo and words, cut out from magazines, are printed on commercial posters and hung on walls in Kunming, expanding the piece from himself to society. The work helped Zhu establish his reputation after its inclusion in The 1st Biennial Exhibition of Chinese Art in Guangzhou (1992). In his latest series 'Celebrities', Zhu has decided to break multinational logos into minuscule fragments – a technique reminiscent of embroidery. Zhu Jia (1963) As one of earliest video artists in China, Zhu has always tried to record the ordinary things through different ways. His photography and video works emerged at a time when China was entering a sensitive period of transition, after the idealism of social transformation at the end of 1980s, marked by events like the China Avant Garde exhibition in Beijing’s National Art Museum of China and Tiananmen student movement in 1989. Over the years, he has developed an outstanding personal language – minimalist but intense, oscillating between dazzling movements and silent static-ness – to confront, testify and intervene the constantly agitating and mutating reality. In his work, there are two distinct but organically related and complementary systems of recording and presenting images that manifest the very particular relationship between the beholder and the world. Zhu Xinyu (1980) Graduated from LuXun Academy of Fine Art in 2004, Zhu belongs to the new generation of artists who has never experienced any dramatic social changes and life has been generally peaceful. Paradoxically, the mature sensitivity and inner turbulence of his paintings might suggest otherwise. With a delicate and evocative painting style, Zhu creates scenes that are deceptively tranquil but are actually layered with intense emotions. Drawing from personal feelings and memories, Zhu's works challenge conventional perceptions while advocating the importance of authenticity. Zou Tao (1984) Graduated from the Luxun Art College in 2009, Zou mainly works with easel painting. In 2007, he obtained the Chinese New Star Art Prize and in 2010, he was awarded the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize.
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