Zhang Xuerui

Zhang Xuerui (*1979, Shanxi, China) currently lives and works in Beijing, China. She graduated from Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 2004. She has had numerous solo and group shows in China and abroad, including at the Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, China, Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China and Galerie Urs Meile Beijing-Lucerne. She participated in Artist in Residence program “Kulturkontakt Austria” in Vienna in 2015. Her works have been collected by public collections including White Rabbit Gallery and Cruthers Art Foundation.

Imagine Zhang Xuerui's paintings as building facades, with equal squares dividing the entire canvas. These squares are parallel to the frame, positing a geometric certainty. The dynamic of the painting comes from its colors—in most cases, each square of color is linked to its neighbor by an almost imperceptible color gradient, making the overall rhythm appear soft and unhurried. The interval shifts in color achieve spatial depth in the picture, but the story within each window is concealed, like flickering lights of varying tone faintly shining through the curtains, while we can never know exactly what is unfolding behind the curtains. They tell a story through non-representational methods, or more precisely, they correspond to a stream-of-consciousness monologue.