Zhang Enli: “A Young Man”, 2018. Oil on canvas, 220 x 180 x 5.2 cm / 86 5/8 x 70 7/8 x 2 in, Photo: Birdhead.
Zhang Enli. New Paintings – Hauser & Wirth Hauser & Wirth presents an exhibition by Zhang Enli titled, ‘New Paintings’, on view from 17 January – 29 February 2020.]]>
Source: Hauser & Wirth
Zhang Enli emerged onto the art scene in the 1990s when he was most associated with symbolic, figurative paintings. Following this, he embarked on a series of quotidian objects treated sensitively and beautifully – whether containers, wires or hoses – these were imbued with their own personal stories, expressive of people in the associated utilities and desires they represented. From here the artist’s gaze turned to the outside world, urban dwellings and nature, blurring the boundaries between inside and out, as he painted trees and skies in varied colours, playing with weight, transparency and texture.
The display in Zurich focuses on Zhang Enli’s expressive new possibilities, the canvases do not depict an object or person as a truthful representation but instead as their essence. New works for the exhibition such as ‘The Single Mother’ (2019) and ‘The Strong Labourer’ (2019) are made with a diverse palette and application – dynamic brushstrokes are overlaid with colourful spheres, indicating a new style in the artist’s painterly aesthetic. In these works, Zhang Enli projects his own concerns and recollections onto the canvas, fusing the real and the imagined, in highly personal impressions.
About the artist
Zhang Enli was born in 1965 in the province of Jilin in China. In 1989, he graduated from the Arts & Design Institute of Wuxi Technical University and relocated to Shanghai to teach at the Arts and Design Institute of Donghua University, a transition that greatly affected his artistic practice and the evolution of his painting. Zhang Enli continued teaching at the University until 2008.
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Zhang Enli: The Box – Hauser & Wirth London (exhibition, 2014)
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