Born in Beijing, 1993, Zhang Zipiao still lives and works there. She studied at the Maryland Institute of Art from 2011–2012, graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015. Zhang’s painting practice revolves around human body, organs, and natural objects. By depicting content inconsistent with traditional society’s social and ethical frameworks, her paintings directly or subtly reveal gender imagery, where the body revels before the demise of illusions. Her works are replete with vitality, in which the bodily body seems to be an erosive landscape in flux, and natural objects are imbued with restless humanity, projecting a rich and complex character of hypocrisy, sincerity, vulnerability, and strength. By exploring the medium of painting’s physical faculty for universally connecting body and spirit, Zhang’s works reflect on and critique reality under the theme of body politics.

Recent solo exhibitions include: “Swallow Whole” (LGDR, New York, 2023), “Moonquake” (Long Museum, Shanghai, 2022), “Heart of Anchor” (Salon 94, New York, 2021), “Blooming” (WHITE SPACE, Beijing, 2020), “Cutthroat Kitchen” (Mine Project Gallery, Hong Kong, 2019). Recent group exhibitions include: “Uncanny Valley” (Gagosian, Hong Kong, 2023), “Multiple Sights—The Tenth Anniversary of the Long Museum” (Shanghai, 2022), “Boundless” (Aurora Museum, Shanghai, 2022), “I'm Stepping High, I’m Drifting, and There I Go Leaping” (Xiao Museum of Contemporary Art, Rizhao, 2022), “The Disconnected Generation: Multi-color, Internetization, Fashion Consumption, Sci-Fi Prose and Global Identity of the Post-90s” (Song Art Museum, Beijing, 2022), “The Language of Mushrooms, The Interspecies Internet” (Kunming Contemporary Art Museum, 2022), “I Recognized the World: Born in the 80s and 90s” (MOCA Yinchuan, 2021). Zhang was featured on the list of “30 Under 30 Asia” by Forbes and “2019 Best of the Best” in the annual young artist category by Robb Report in 2019.