Statement
My paintings deal with personal and collective emotions of being a first-generation immigrant in America, revolving around themes of alienation, displacement, and self-contradiction. I use a deconstructed and allegorical approach to create my painted scenes, incorporating my memories and experiences of my native country, China, as well as my current residence in America. My past experience during the Cultural Revolution in China, a time of social unrest, widespread propaganda, violence, and expected obedience to authority, has informed the underlying mood of my paintings and my questions of the place of the individual self in relation to its society. In my work I am interested in dualisms and tensions between the preservation of history and erasure, political structures and the individual, belonging and alienation, and material body and soul. Pulling from my photographic archive, I juxtapose symbols of construction, detritus, ritual, and ambivalence to reference my Chinese American immigrant experience and personal emotions that are in flux alongside historical and contemporary social environments.
Bio
Furong Zhang was raised in Shanghai, China during the Cultural Revolution. In 1977 he attended the Shanghai Normal University, majoring in oil painting. He received his MFA from Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing in 1987. In 1989, Zhang was part of the controversial first China Avant-Garde art show at Beijing's National Fine Art Museum. During that time he participated in various exhibitions held at the Beijing and Shanghai Fine Art Museums. In 1989, he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and immigrated to America. He currently lives and works in Pennsylvania and New York.
CV
Education and Residencies
2021 Skowhegan Alumni Residency, Maine
1989 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine
1987 MFA, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
1982 BFA, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
Solo Exhibitions
2022 (forthcoming) “Crossing the Dry Sea”, Gallery 456, New York
2021 “Scenes from a Metamorphosis”, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York
2019 Satellite Art Show, Brooklyn, NY
Satellite Art Show, Miami
1999 Yale University, CT
1998 Middle Tennessee State University, TN
1990 Z Gallery, New York
Group Exhibitions
2022 (forthcoming) "Into the Light", Bellefonte Art Museum, Pennsylvania
2021 “Twice in a Lifetime”, Skowhegan, Maine
2019 Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan
2018 Miao Art Space, Shanghai, China
2009 Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
2006 Gallery North, New York
1996 Asian American Arts Center, New York
1994 Gallery at Park West, New York
1993 Sudderth Art International, Florida
1990 Muse Gallery, Massachusetts
1989 "China Avant-Garde Exhibition", National Fine Art Museum, Beijing, China
Galerie Werner Milletin, Germany
1988 Shanghai Fine Art Museum, Shanghai, China
1987 Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
1986 National Fine Art Museum, Beijing, China
1985 National Fine Art Museum, Beijing, China
Shanghai Fine Art Museum, Shanghai, China
1984 Shanghai Fine Art Museum, Shanghai, China
1983 Shanghai Fine Art Museum, Shanghai, China
1982 Shanghai Fine Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Museum Collection
National Fine Art Museum, Beijing, China
National Treasure Museum, Japan
Publications & Press
2021 The Hopper Prize, Furong Zhang Interview
2020 SVA Visual Arts Journal, Spring/Summer 2020 Vol.28, Art Space Oddity
2019 New York Magazine, The Cut, Meet 10 Emerging Artists
Eyes Towards the Dove: Contemporary Art & Culture, You Are the Rider & the Horse
Canvas, Brooklyn: Furong Zhang interview
HocTok, What Matters by Furong Zhang
Awards and Honors
2021 Hopper Prize, Finalist
1989 Fellowship for Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
1985 Second Place, National Fine Art Exhibition of Youth, Beijing, China