Zhao Gang

Biography

Zhao Gang's childhood coincided with the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in China. Revolutionary operas, political propaganda films, and ideological readings such as textbooks and comic strips were the main graphic resources in his growth and development stage. As a member of The Stars Art Group, the earliest avant-garde group in Chinese contemporary art, Zhao's painting practice began in the late 1970s. He then went to the United States to study in 1983, and the conflict between the socialist culture of the East and the liberal worldview of the West led to a sense of disillusionment. At the same time, Zhao's art embarked on a path of deconstruction, a complete decomposition of concepts, contents, and techniques.

Living in the dual backgrounds of socialism and capitalism, Zhao's artistic experience is as full of variables and unpredictability as his life experience. This makes his paintings present a humorous view as well as a critical stance, expressing in a detached expressionist narrative tone the conflicts and contradictions between his youthful memories and the reality he faces in adulthood.

Zhao Gang, born in Beijing, graduated from New York Vassar College, USA in 1984; and from New York Bard College in 1998 with a master's degree. His works took part in the "Stars Art Exhibition" launched by the National Art Museum of China in Beijing in 1980; "The Chinese Avant-Garde Art Exhibition" in New York in 1986; “Stars: The tenth Year" in Paris in 1989; "The Door Art Exhibition" in New York and Long Island in 1990; an exhibition in New York Volpato Gallery in 1991 and an exhibition in Philadelphia in 1998. In addition to these, he has held solo exhibitions in New York Volpato Gallery in 1989 and 1990, in Paris in 1991 and Beijing Court Yard Gallery in 1999.