Zhang Ruyi 张如怡

Zhang Ruyi’s artwork centers on hidden relationships between consciousness and mundane experience. She explores the tension between the individual and wider reality through imagery of the parallel tension between natural phenomena and industrial landscapes. Aesthetically, her art tends toward presenting orderly relationships which present a sense of space to be “read,” “questioned,” and “remembered.” Using juxtaposition, she raises questions about the objects which she creates in her art. Likewise, the sense of space implied by her art is meant to raise questions about spaces in the wider world. The implied questions often involve overtones of resistance to certain elements of the social order.

Zhang Ruyi was born in Shanghai, China, in 1985; she currently lives and works in Shanghai. She received a BFA and MFA at the Fine Art College of Shanghai University, Shanghai, in 2007 and 2012, respectively. Her recent solo exhibitions include Consciousness of Location Zhang Ruyi, Don Gallery, Shanghai (2019); Bonsai, François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, California, United States (2019); Profile, Art Basel HK (Discoveries), Hong Kong, China (2018); Decoration: Dump, Telescope, Beijing (2017); and Decoration: Commodity, MOCA Pavilion, Shanghai (2017). Her recent group exhibitions include A Composite Leviathan, Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York (2019); Steadfastly Lower the Standards in Nonproductive Construction, Don Gallery, Shanghai (2018); Witness, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London (2018); Emerald City, K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong, China (2018); Walking On the Fade Out Lines, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2018); Zhong Guo 2185, Sadie Coles HQ, London, (2017); and The New Normal: Art and China in 2017, UCCA, Beijing (2017).