Zhang Ying received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou. Though she specialised in ink and figure painting, she is drawn to the spiritual qualities of the Chinese landscape painting tradition and has focused the last few years of her practice on landscape, rock and tree paintings. Chinese painters of the past portrayed landscapes to reflect the vastness of the universe. Similarly, rocks represented a microcosm of nature to which artists turned for inspiration and meditation. Zhang draws from these legacies and transforms them into her personal visual language. According to the artist, she endeavors to create a space for reflection between the present and the spiritual. Indeed, there is a meditative quality in each of her paintings—along with their poetic titles—that invites our contemplation.Wind at Sunset (2016) recalls the rock in the painting_Auspicious Dragon Roc_k, attributed to the emperor Huizong (r. 1101–1125), one of most prominent petrophiles in Chinese history, who spent huge sums to gather the finest specimens of rocks from all over the country to decorate his gardens.Heart of Strength (2016) depicts a large rock holding strong amid the tumultuous waves crashing against it, embodying the resilience and solidity that rocks are believed to possess.POP ROCK in 2021 is Alisan Fine Arts' first time working with the artist, and the first time her works are exhibited in Hong Kong. For our debut in _Asian Art in London _at Cromwell Place in 2022, her recent works were on display. In 2023, her works are also included in 3 exciting events: Ink Asia, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong; Beyond Tradition: The Metamorphosis of Chinese Art, Cromwell Place, London, UK; and Art021, Shanghai Exhibition Centre, Shanghai.
