Zhang Huan

London

White Cube Bermondsey currently presents an exhibition by the acclaimed artist Zhang Huan. Known primarily for his rigorous and demanding performances of the 1990s, Zhang’s more recent work has consisted of sculptures and paintings made using incense ash gathered from the rituals and ceremonies performed daily at Buddhist temples in the artist’s native city of Shanghai.

Entitled The Mountain is Still a Mountain, a reference to the teachings of a Chan Buddhist master from the Tang Dynasty period, this exhibition presents a series of large-scale figurative ash paintings that touch on diverse cultural, political and spiritual themes.

Painted from historical photographs taken from old magazines, family albums and the propagandist publications distributed by the government during the Cultural Revolution, their subject matter ranges from depictions of political leaders, such as the influential Nationalist Party members Chiang Kai-shek and Hu Hanmin, important intellectual and religious figures like the writer Wei Wei and the Buddhist scholar Shen-yen to anonymous family portraits and panoramic seascapes.

White Cube

July 20th – August 26th, 2012
144 – 152 Bermondsey Street
London SE1 3TQ
UK

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