Zhang Xiaogang

On September 13, 2025, Song Art Museum will launch a large-scale retrospective solo exhibition, The Reader, the Writer by artist Zhang Xiaogang.

Curated by Cui Cancan, this exhibition marks Zhang's largest solo exhibition to date. Focusing on Zhang's dual roles as both reader and author throughout his creative career, the exhibition explores the relationship between time, art history, and the individual, showcasing his unique artistic trajectory over the past 50 years.

The exhibition features nearly 400 works spanning 1975 to 2025, including paintings, works on paper, installations, spaces, letters, archives, and sketches. The exhibition utilizes a nonlinear narrative structure and surrealist techniques to highlight recurring themes and emotional connections in Zhang's work.

A landmark figure in Chinese contemporary art, Zhang is a creator of images of his time that have influenced the world. His extended family and portrait series have become classic and timeless images of the Chinese people.

Zhang is a driving force behind contemporary painting and a game-changer in narrative painting. His focus on history, reality, memory, and the psychological world, combined with his use of flat, pictorial, and grayscale tones in the 1990s, demonstrates the power of contemporary painting to engage with reality and shape history.