Born in 1968 in Jinan, Zhang Lei currently lives and works in Beijing and Berlin. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Shandong University of Art & Design in 1992, later attending the Oil Painting Advanced Studies Program at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 1996, she completed her studies in the Mural Painting Assistant Program at the same institution. After relocating to Germany, Zhang Lei obtained a master’s degree from the Burg Giebichenstein College of Art and Design in Halle. Zhang Lei specializes in site-specific installations that harmonize with natural environments, conveying a simple yet profound ecofeminist perspective.

Her works have been widely exhibited in museums and art institutions around the world. Notable exhibitions she has participated in include Displacement: Four-Person Installation Art Exhibition at Capital Normal University Art Museum in 1995; Keepers of the Waters (Lhasa), a series of art events that took place along the Lhasa River in 1996; Between Ego and Society: An Exhibition of Contemporary Female Artists in China at Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, in 1997; Half of the Sky at the Frauen Museum in Bonn, Germany, in 1998; and He Bi, a group exhibition at the Tree Art Museum in Beijing in 2012. In 2000, Zhang was awarded a grant from the Heinrich Böll Stiftung in Germany.