Overview

Born in 1979 in Shaanxi, China, Zhang Yirong grew up in an environment filled with extraordinary historical sites. Included among these places were the many Buddhist and Daoist monasteries for which her father and grandfather, both artists, created devotional murals and statues. Immersed in this rich artistic and cultural lineage, Zhang began learning the techniques of classical Chinese painting from an early age, a formative experience that laid the foundation for her subsequent mastery of ink. To this day, it remains a distinctive hallmark of her artistic style. 

The majority of Zhang’s works are ink drawings, an intricate style perfected by the painting masters of the Song and Yuan dynasties. Their influence is readily apparent in her paintings, which depict flowers and other plants in exquisite detail. Deftly rendered by Zhang’s careful hand, these delicate still lifes “reveal [a] deeper connection to the universe that brings inner peace to the viewer.” It is this spiritual pursuit of the Dao that animates Zhang’s painting practice. As a manifestation of spiritual transformation, painting brings ethics and aesthetics together and offers a way to seek a higher truth that begins in the body. Said Zhang, “the core of traditional Chinese drawing is spirituality, which provides the inner meaning of this art form.”  

Zhang’s paintings are often accompanied by passages from Classical Chinese texts on Buddhist and Daoist philosophies. Elegantly inscribed by artist and calligrapher Tai Xiangzhou—Zhang’s frequent collaborator and life partner— the pairing of flora and calligraphy invites the viewer to contemplate the beauty of nature and pursue moral and spiritual cultivation through it.

Zhang’s fine art practice continues her family’s legacy as master artists of devotional works. In 2017, she was invited to create a large ink drawing for the restoration of a Northern Song Dynasty mural at Xing Hua Temple in Gaoping, Shanxi, the last surviving mural in China dating to the eleventh century. Additionally, Zhang’s works can be found in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Works
Biography

 

1979

Born in Shaanxi

 

Recevieved training in classical ink panting at a young age from father, Zhang Xiubiao

2001

BA from Communication University of China, Beijing, China

2008

MA from Peking University

Present

Lives in Beijing

 

Selected Exhibitions

 

2022 

She/Her/Hers: Women in the Arts of ChinaHarn Museum of Art, 

 

University of Florida,USA

2021

Ink Dreams ,Selections from the Fondation INK Collection, 

 

Los Angekes   County Museum of Art, USA 

2020

Dreaming Together: New-York Historical Society and Asia Society,

 

New York, USA

 

ART021 SHANGHAI,  Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

2019 Song ceramics and Paintings, Art Institute of Chicago, USA
 

Buddha and Flower, GAWA Gallery, New York, USA

 

Woman+Ink/China+Hongkong ,Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

2018 Flower and Butterfly, GAWA Gallery, New York, USA
2017

Buddha and Flower, U Space,SuZhou, China

 

One with the Universe, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

 

Shanxi Gaoping Kaihua Temple Wall Painting ExhibitionArthur M.Sackler Museum of Art and Arthaeology at Peking University ,Beijing ,China

 

Ink painting of Zhang Yirong, Moscow, Russia

2016

The Chinese Porcelain Company, Asia Week New York, USA

2015

SHUIMO/Water Ink, A Selling Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary

 

Ink Paintings at Sotheby’s, S2 GALLERY, New York, USA

 

Art basel HongKong, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

2014

Beyond the Jade, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong

 

As Above So Below, Lucie Chang Fine Arts, Hong Kong

 

Meditations in NatureBen Brown Fine Arts Hong Kong

 

Asia Week New York 2014, The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, USA

2013

Ink paintings by Constance Fong and Yirong Zhang: The Chinese Porcelain

 

Company, New York, USA

 

Asia Week New York 2013, The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, USA

2012

Ink paintings by Constance Fong and Yirong Zhang, 

 

The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, USA

 

Asia Week New York 2012, The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, USA

2011

Asia Week New York 2011, The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, USA

 

Another Landscape, Edge Gallery , Hong Kong

 

Public collections and Exhibitions

 

Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, USA

Art Institute of Chicago, USA

Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, USA

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA

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