Zhang Dejian

In transferring this momentary emotion to the canvas, Zhang Dejian intentionally cleans up and eliminates the concrete image, stripping it of its superficial content and then moving towards abstraction, leaving a few blocks of color and flowing brushstrokes, as well as a multiplicity of meaningful visual forms. Although Zhang Dejian’s years of painting practice provide him with natural and fluid technical support, the construction of a perfect painting language is not his highest aspiration. Through the discussion of specific issues such as space, form, color, black and white, and brushwork distilled from natural objects, he makes individual responses to the nature of everything around him, ultimately ‘transcending the image to get to the center of the universe, which is more in line with his personal spiritual pursuit.

1952 Born in Tianjin

1977 Graduated from Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts

1989 Graduated from Oil Painting Department of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts

1998-1999 Have studied in Belgium Antwerp Royal Academy by the fund of the National education committee

1989 to now Work as a professor in Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts the Oil painting Department

Solo Exhibitions

2019 Sensing Externalities: Zhang Dejian Solo Exhibition, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Shenzhen, China

          Sensing Externalities: Zhang Dejian Solo Exhibition, Artron Art Centre, Shenzhen, China

2017 Significant Form: Thirty Years of Paintings by Zhang Dejian, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

Selected Group Exhibitions

2019 Diagonal: Zhang Dejian, Zhao Gang, Gene Gallery, Shanghai, China

          Shapes of Expression – Art Exhibition from Teachers in Oil Painting Department of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, National Museum of China, Beijing, China

2018 The Clouded Peach Blossom Spring: Selected Works of Chinese Contemporary Artists as Exemplars, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

2015 Sensibility, Distance Gallery, Tianjin, China

2003 The Third Oil Painting Exhibition of China, National Museum of China, Beijing, China

1998 Zhang Dejian’s Oil Paintings, Yudian Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

1995 Tianjin Youth Art Exhibition, Tianjin, China

1990 Eleven Artists from Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing Music Hall Art Gallery, Beijing, China