Prospering in resistance: the performance art of Zhang Huan from the 1990s to 2000s

Widely featured by galleries, museums and art fairs around the world, Zhang Huan is one of China's most avant-garde and famous artists. Zhang first studied oil painting at He Nan University from 1984 to 1988 and later went to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing to further his study of fine arts and graduated in 1993. He began his artistic career in an eastern rural area in Beijing known as the East Village where many avant-garde artists aggregated since the early 1990s. Born in 1965, Zhang's work is closely related to and rises slightly after the “New Wave” art scenes in China that developed in the early 1980s and later became known as the “85 New Wave.” The art of Zhang includes highly theatrical performance, painting, sculpture, and large-scale installation, which strike the contemporary art world with strong visual impact. Though most critics and scholars primarily focus on the performativity, as well as cultural and religious references of Zhang's work, they often overlook the resistant spirit that is buried under the surface of his work. This thesis will investigate the various system, conditions, and binaries that Zhang tries to resist, and the diverse angles and visual strategies he has taken and adopted in performance that best demonstrate his resistance.