Zhang Xiaoli was born in 1989 in Guizhou, China. She received the Ms Chu Lam Yiu Scholarship and moved to Hong Kong in 2008 to pursue higher education at Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she received her BA with first honours in Fine Arts and Biology in 2014. During the graduation show, she received Y.S Hui Fine Arts Award and Wucius Wong Creative Ink Painting Award. She is now pursuing graduate study at Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Zhang's works replace elements in Chinese landscape painting – trees, mountains, rocks and figures – with depictions of Lego bricks, as a contemporary way to create dialogues with tradition. In the "Boxed Landscape" series, she uses this language to paint surreal scenes of landscape in daily objects, as a depiction of memories and experiences.

Her recent important group exhibitions include Youth Will: Beijing Youth Art Biennale, Today Art Museum, Beijing, 2016 and Fresh Trend, Hong Kong City Hall, 2014. Her works have also been exhibited at art fairs including Affordable Art Fairs (2016 New York, 2018 Hong Kong); Ink Asia 2017; Off Course Art Fair 2015, Brussels; and Fine Art Asia 2014, Hong Kong. Alisan Fine Arts first showcased her works in the 2017 group exhibition Desiring: Post 97 Hong Kong Ink Art, and then two group exhibitions in 2018: Emerging Ink Atists, as well as the charity exhibition HOPE.