Study in Two Heads (Inceptions)

Zhang Yunyao was born in Shanghai, China in 1985 and graduated from the Department of Oil Paintings from Academy of Fine Arts at Shanghai Normal University in 2007.

Through the use of non-traditional painting media and surfaces, Zhang Yunyao explores the temporal nature of painting, as well as the instability and intersections of historical and personal memory. Taking as his subjects biblical, classical, and mythological scenes immortalized by the master sculptors and painters of antiquity, Zhang renders his tableaux with hallucinatory precision, using notoriously unpredictable materials such as graphite and pastel on felt, which itself is unabsorbtive and prone to pilling. The artist’s slow and meticulous process of drafting and rubbing result in a hazy, textured surface with an abundance of depth and tone. His choice to often superimpose images, creating the illusion of a photographic double exposure, contributes to the rich materiality of his paintings that seem to make tangible the sensation of time itself. 

 His works have been widely exhibited in various institutions such as Musée Fenaille (Rodez, 2021) within an exhibition co-curated and co-organized with Musée du Louvre, chi K11 Art Museum (Shanghai, 2016), CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, 2015), Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai (Shanghai, 2013), etc. His solo exhibitions include 'Zhang Yunyao'  at Galerie Marguo ( Paris, 2020), 'Zhang Yunyao: Drawing Room' Asia Now Paris Asian Art Fair (Paris, 2020), 'Palace of Extasy' at Qiao Space (Shanghai, 2019), 'Skin Gesture Body' at Don Gallery (Shanghai, 2017), 'Nec Spe, Nec Metu' at Perrotin Gallery (Hong Kong, 2017), 'After Evensong' at Don Gallery (Shanghai, 2015), 'Touch Point' 01100001 Gallery (Beijing, 2013), 'Mirage' at Don Gallery (Shanghai, 2013), 'Paradbox ' at Don Gallery (Shanghai, 2011).