Fu Qiumeng Fine Art is pleased to announce Block Party!, a solo exhibition by Zhang Xiaoli, opening September 2, 2026, at the Art Museum of Washington and Lee University (W&L) in Lexington, Virginia. The exhibition will be on view through December 12, 2026.
Represented by Fu Qiumeng Fine Art in North America, Zhang Xiaoli has established a growing institutional presence in the United States through museum acquisitions, exhibitions, and artist residencies. Block Party! continues this trajectory, bringing together a new body of work developed during her 2025 Artist-in-Residence at W&L.
Rather than presenting a conventional survey of Zhang’s practice, Block Party! emerges from a specific encounter with the history and collections of Washington and Lee University. The exhibition centers on Zhang’s engagement with the work of I-Hsiung Ju (1923–2012), the Chinese painter, educator, and W&L Professor Emeritus of Art whose work is held in the University’s permanent collection.
At the heart of the exhibition is Mountain Passenger (2025), a hanging scroll created as a study and contemporary reinterpretation of Ju’s Mountain Pass Traveler. Through this work, Zhang enters into a direct dialogue with an earlier generation of Chinese artists who lived and worked in the United States, while reflecting on her own experience as a contemporary Chinese artist living and working in North America.
This intergenerational encounter is central to the exhibition. Ju spent two decades teaching at Washington and Lee, where he played an important role in introducing Chinese painting and calligraphy to generations of students. Zhang’s return to the same institution decades later creates an unexpected continuity between two artists separated by time, geography, and artistic circumstance, yet connected through Chinese painting and the experience of cultural exchange.
Translating the Chinese Landscape
Zhang’s paintings are grounded in the tradition of gongbi, a highly detailed mode of Chinese painting characterized by precise outlines, meticulous brushwork, and layered color. In Block Party!, she brings this classical technique into dialogue with an unexpected contemporary vocabulary: modular building blocks and toy minifigures.
Classical landscapes, rocks, gardens, architectural structures, figures, and imagery drawn from traditional Chinese painting manuals are reconstructed through these contemporary objects. Alongside references to the history of Chinese painting, Zhang incorporates elements of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the landscape surrounding W&L.
The resulting works occupy a space between the familiar and the invented. Traditional Chinese visual structures remain recognizable, but are rebuilt through contemporary objects associated with play, construction, and popular culture.
This tension between tradition and transformation allows Zhang to consider a broader question: What happens to an inherited visual language when it moves across cultures, generations, and geographies?
Her work approaches cultural transmission not as a fixed process of preservation, but as one of reinterpretation. Images change as they travel; traditions acquire new meanings when encountered from different places and perspectives.
From Residency to Exhibition
Block Party! originated in Zhang’s 2025 residency at the W&L Art Museum. During the residency, she engaged closely with the Museum’s collection and with the artistic legacy of I-Hsiung Ju, while developing new work in response to the landscape and cultural environment of Virginia.
The residency became the foundation for the present exhibition and established a continuing relationship between Zhang and Washington and Lee University.
In Fall 2026, Zhang will return to W&L as the I-Hsiung Ju and Chuang Chiu-shun Visiting Artist. During her visit, she will co-teach courses in Chinese painting and calligraphy and participate in a series of public programs accompanying Block Party!.
The exhibition is organized by Isra El-beshir, Director of the W&L Art Museum, and Zhang Xiaoli, with Daniel M. Greenberg, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, serving as guest curator.
Public Programs
All programs are free and open to the public. Advance registration is recommended where required.
Chinese Seal-Carving Workshop
September 4, 2026 | 1:00–2:30 PM
Watson Galleries
Led by Zhang Xiaoli, this hands-on workshop introduces participants to the traditional practice of Chinese seal carving and offers participants an opportunity to design and carve their own personal seals.
Curator-Led Exhibition Tours
September 17, 2026 | 9:00, 10:00 & 11:00 AM
Watson Galleries
Guest curator Daniel M. Greenberg will lead three 30-minute tours exploring the artistic, historical, and curatorial themes of Block Party!.
The Legacy of I-Hsiung Ju Alumni Panel
September 18, 2026 | 2:00–3:00 PM
Watson Galleries
An alumni panel reflecting on I-Hsiung Ju’s life and legacy as an artist, educator, and cultural ambassador, and his enduring influence on generations of W&L students.
Artist Talk & Opening Reception
September 18, 2026 | 5:30–7:30 PM
5:30–6:30 PM — Artist Talk, University Chapel
6:30–7:30 PM — Opening Reception, Watson Galleries
Zhang Xiaoli and guest curator Daniel M. Greenberg will discuss the ideas, research, and artistic processes behind Block Party!, followed by a reception at Watson Galleries.
Mid-Autumn Festival Family Day
September 26, 2026 | 10:00–11:30 AM
Watson Galleries
A family-oriented program celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival through calligraphy, poetry, and hands-on activities inspired by Chinese artistic traditions.
Chinese Fan Painting Workshop
November 2 & November 9, 2026 | 5:00–7:00 PM
A two-part workshop led by Zhang Xiaoli exploring traditional autumnal imagery through painting on silk fans.
