Tang Contemporary Art is proud to present a major solo exhibition at their new Central gallery space for leading contemporary Chinese artist ZHAO ZHAO, curated by Cui Cancan. The exhibition will present new works from the artist’s series Lighter, Fragments, Untitled, and Safe, which he spent a year producing. Working in a wide variety of materials and techniques, the new works address feelings of insecurity.
Security is an emotion, a psychological feeling so integral to social structure as an experience of trust and reliability; it is also a physical and psychological premonition of threat and risk, when an individual must discern between the power and the powerless. These feelings are prevalent in China where the people have fallen vulnerable to their country’s particular social structure. In response to various unexpected events, large-scale protests have occurred; moreover, their concern for security has become overwhelmingly evident in the individual’s daily experience.
Born in 1982 in Xinjiang, China, Zhao Zhao graduated from the Xinjiang Institute of the Arts in 2003 and later attended the Beijing Film Academy. The former assistant to Ai Weiwei, now regarded a significant figure among the young Post-80s generation of contemporary Chinese artists – Zhao Zhao’s work is often associated with anti-authoritarian or non-conformist tendencies and is renowned for confronting existing ideological structures and exercising the power of individual free will in his work. His provocative, multidisciplinary artistic practice has garnered him international attention in recent years with critically-acclaimed exhibitions across China, North America and Europe as an ‘artist to watch’.
Cui Cancan is an active Chinese independent curator. He was the winner of the CCAA (Chinese Contemporary Art Award) Critics’ Award, Critics’ Award in Chinese contemporary art by YISHU (Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art), the annual award by L’OFFICIEL Art and so on. He was also appointed special observer for the 13th Kassel Documenta. As a curator, Cui contributed to the success of major exhibitions including Heiqiao Night Away (2013), FUCKOFF II (2013), Unlived by What is Seen (2014), Ai Weiwei solo exhibition (2015), etc.
