ZHANG XIAOLI

Featuring about a dozen recent works, the exhibition showcases Zhang’s meticulous fine painting technique (gongbi) in landscapes set within surreal and imagined spaces. Her compositions incorporate playful game-related motifs, including her well-known Lego and Box series, alongside references to chess, the Rubik’s Cube, and labyrinths. Together, her work reframes of the classical literati pursuit of ‘wandering in the mind,’ echoing the gallery’s anniversary theme, ‘Then and Now’.

In the classical tradition, such ‘wandering’ describes an aesthetic practice in which the literati travelled through landscapes by way of painting rather than on foot, awakening an inner awareness through artistic conception and arriving at a sanctuary of the soul. As Zhang notes: ‘Through “wandering,” I aspire to explore the connection between reality and illusion, and within it, discover emotions of playfulness and significance.’

Artistic Style

Zhang is celebrated for her gongbi technique in rendering imagined scenes. Her engagement with game elements began in the 2010s with the acclaimed Boxed Landscape series. Departing from the conventions of Chinese landscape painting, she substitutes traditional motifs such as trees, mountains, rocks, and figures with Lego bricks, and in doing so opens a contemporary dialogue with tradition. Within compact containers, she constructs surreal terrains that distilled personal memories and encounters into poetic visual narratives.

In recent years, Zhang has drawn inspiration from Cabinets of Curiosities which originated from the 15th to the 18th centuries, and she interweaves ideas from astronomy, physics, physiology, molecular biology, mathematics, and metaphysics. This synthesis foregrounds intellect, poetry, and aesthetics in equal measure. Through these works, Zhang reframes the landscape genre for a contemporary context and offers glimpses of nature as it is experienced and reimagined by the modern mind.