Zhang Xiaogang Receives Honorary Doctorate

Congratulations to Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang on his recent Honorary Doctorate from Philadelphia's University of the Arts. David Yager, the University's President and CEO, delivered the honor to Zhang on May 16 in recognition of his contributions to Chinese contemporary art.

Born in Kunming China in 1958, Zhang came to prominence in the 1990s amid the new wave of Chinese artists breaking from aesthetic traditions. Playing off the conventions of state-sponsored Socialist Realism and inspired by Surrealism, he navigates the cultural terrain of contemporary China with works that question notions of identity and the construction of memory.