Zhang Enli
Using the outside world as a mirror, Zhang Enli documents the more prosaic aspects of contemporary life. He regularly works with everyday objects that he is instinctively drawn to, for example a piece of string, a hose, or even a marble ball from the floor of his studio. Zhang Enli often magnifies his subjects until a specific fragment of a scene is depicted, as if enlarged through the viewfinder of a camera. Within his figurative works, the perspective of each painting is often skewed to heighten the drama of the object's shape, or to enlarge its importance. Zhang Enli's expressive lines and curves are influenced by traditional Chinese brush painting, but are always underpinned by the structure of his pencil-drawn grids. The muted tones and loose washes of paint make the objects seem removed, as if occupying a liminal reality where only the essence of the object is portrayed on the canvas.
Zhang Enli (b.1965, Jilin, China) lives and works in Shanghai, China. He graduated from Arts & Design Institute of Wuxi Technical University in China in 1989. Selected solo exhibitions include: Hauser & Wirth, 'Zhang Enli. Faces', Hong Kong, China (2024); Long Museum West Bund, 'Zhang Enli. Expression', Shanghai, China (2023); HEM He Art Museum, 'Zhang Enli. Portraits', Guangdong, China (2023); Hauser & Wirth, 'Zhang Enli. Looking Outwards', St. Moritz, Switzerland (2022); The Long Museum Chongqing, 'Zhang Enli: A Room with Colour', Chongqing, China (2021); Power Station of Art, 'A Room That Can Move', Shanghai, China (2020); Hauser & Wirth, 'Zhang Enli. New Paintings', Zurich, Switzerland (2020); Xavier Hufkens, 'Zhang Enli', Brussels, Belgium (2019); K11 Foundation, 'Oscar Murillo. Zhang Enli', Shanghai, China (2019); Galleria Borghese, 'Zhang Enli. Bird Cage', Rome, Italy (2019); Hauser & Wirth, 'Zhang Enli', New York NY (2018). Selected group exhibitions include: Start Museum, 'Thus Spoke The Moment - Inaugural Exhibition Season 2', Shanghai, China (2023); Museum Liaunig, 'Follow the Rabbit. Taking Stock of a Collection and its Reception through Contemporary Chinese Art', Neuhaus, Austria (2023); 'Silvers in the Void', MAMOTH, London, UK (2023); K11 Musea, 'K11 Art Karnival', Hong Kong, China (2022); Art Mapping Piemonte, Church of San Rocco, 'Zhang Enli. A Cheerful Person', Montabone, Italy (2022); Song Art Museum, 'Rhythm and Refrain', Beijing, China (2022); UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, 'Common Ground. UCCA 15th Anniversary Patrons Collection Exhibition', Beijing, China (2022); ART YOU, 'Your Room', Taiyuan, China (2022); Hauser & Wirth, 'Drawing On The Mind', cur. Zhang Enli, Central, Hong Kong (2021); TANK Shanghai, 'Red', Shanghai, China Power Station of Art, 'Trees', Shanghai, China (2021); UCCA Edge, 'City on the Edge. Art and Shanghai at the Turn of the Millennium, Shanghai, China (2021); ShangART, 'Cache: From B to Z', Shanghai, China (2020); The Barn Contemporary Art Space, 'Daybreak', Shenzhen, China (2019); ShangART, 'The Avant-Garde is Not Afraid of a Long March', Singapore, Singapore (2019), etc.
