Symbiosis, 2024
Zhang Shujian, born in 1987, Hunan, China. He lives and works in Beijing.
The first encounter with a work by Zhang Shujian is often a shock. Our eye, accustomed to the standards of art as a representation of the beautiful or pleasing, finds itself confronted with imperfection, sometimes even ugliness.
Inspired by Dürer or Da Vinci, Zhang Shujian is interested in human faces. Her project is to give pictorial space to the flaws in our faces, to the elements we consider awkward or deformed.
His highly detailed works are a quest for hyperrealism and photorealism. Using pencil on paper or thin layers of oil paint, varnish and lacquer - techniques akin to Gothic tempera painting on cardboard - he creates works that give imperfection a value as an expression of life and truth.
Zhang Shujian's work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai, Amsterdam and Hall, Austria. His highly sought-after works are included in private, corporate and public collections such as the CAFA Museum, the Taikang Collection, the De Heus-Zomer Collection and the Uli Sigg Collection.