Zhang Hongtu brings a lyrical tone and a playful dexterity to his experience with traditional Chinese culture, daily life in China, and immigrant life in America, lending his imagery distinctive insights into the cross-cultural perspective. The works assembled for this exhibition create a unique dialogue that brings into question the very definition of artistic categories.
In Flying Blues he uses the language of installation art to create a moving interpretation of the experiences of immigrants, including his own, through references to Buddhism and traditional Chinese culture. Images of Mao Zedong that figured so prominently in his life in China are the subject of several humorous and sometimes disturbing images. Through a sublime series of monumental landscapes he has combined his knowledge of Chinese landscape painting with an exploration of the techniques of European Impressionism. With the imaginary pages of a Christie’s Catalogue he explores the boundaries between China and the West, reality and fiction, and the definition of fine art.
