Vivien Zhang

Vivien Zhang (b. 1990) lives and works in London.

Zhang's paintings ask us to question the flawed linguistic, visual and taxonomic systems that we use to understand all facets of life. She examines our consumption of images and information in a technologically mediated world.

Zhang assembles motifs collected from personal experiences and intensive research into abstract fields within her paintings. The canvas becomes a site for the motifs from multiple contexts and cultures to collide and defy their origin, generating what Zhang considers 'alternative landscapes’. Precise, digitally constructed sections of painting sit with expressive washes which drip and pool. Her paintings straddle the tension between the perfection of a digital image and the chance of painterly composition.

A recent thematic focus is ecology, particularly the evolution and classification of organic species, as well as map projections that profile our globe. Zhang sees these as ways in which to reflect on migration and cultural identity, and how societal constructs and classification influence the way we understand and relate to each other.

Vivien Zhang is a London-based artist who spent her formative years in China, Kenya and Thailand. She received a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, London in 2012, and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London in 2014. She is an Associate Lecturer at Camberwell College of Arts.

Recent exhibitions include Abstraction (re)creation – 20 under 40, Le Consortium, Dijon (2024); Boundless Reverie: Chinese Savoir-Faire and Contemporary Art, K11 Foundation, Hong Kong (2024); The Infinite Conversation, Beijing Biennial, China (2022); BARBE À PAPA, CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux (2022); The Disconnected Generation, Song Art Museum, Beijing (2022); Mixing It Up: Painting Today, Hayward Gallery, London (2021); New Peril, TANK Shanghai, Shanghai (2020). In September 2024, Zhang will have a significant presentation as part of the exhibition Dream Screen, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul. Vivien Zhang was the recipient of the Abbey Award 2016-17 at the British School at Rome and the Chadwell Award 2014–15.