ZHANG XIAOTAO

Zhang Xiaotao describes his large scale paintings as “magnified pictures of material life, which is full of absurdity and lust.” Human waste, pollution, abandoned structures and decay are common subjects of his works, which he paints in vibrant and highly detail. The terms “Chinese art” and “sexually explicit” don’t often go together, but in the case of painter Zhang, the two elements combine to form works that are at once subtle and explosive. Zhang, who was born in 1970, belongs to a generation of Chinese artists that has been able to exercise comparative freedom of expression but the freedom hasn’t made him complacent. Though his work might at first seem dominated by an effusion of color and pattern, it rapidly becomes clear that its decorative elements are there to enhance the power of the work’s bawdiness and its political subtext.