Chen Zhen
Born 1955, Shanghai, China
Lives and works in Paris, New York, and Shanghai

Chen Zhen brings together memories from his childhood with symbols of contemporary culture to express the complexities and nuances that characterize our present-day global experience. Walking to school as a child in Shanghai, Chen Zhen would see women engaged in the daily ritual of washing chamber pots in the street. At school he would hear the obligatory daily reading from Mao Zedong’s "Little Red Book" of communist doctrine intended to "cleanse the soul." These two memories translate in his sculpture as 101 chamber pots suspended from a wooden structure reminiscent of a Chinese Bronze-age musical instrument. Located in the center is a jumbled "globe" of modern machines, worn out and obsolete. The superimposed sounds of water and political indoctrination emanating from the installation communicate a meditative mood. Dualities are recurrent in Chen Zhen’s work: he reflects on the gaps between East and West, between traditional and contemporary culture, between the politics of communism and capitalism in Asia, and between his actual childhood and its memory.

Chen Zhen, Daily Incantations, 1996

Chen Zhen, Daily Incantations, 1996 (installation view detail)

Chen Zhen responds to questions in the Artists of the Week section in this site.

During the last decade, Chen Zhen has presented his work at venues throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America, including international exhibitions such as First Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai Art Museum (1996); Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, 97 Kwangju Biennale: Unmapping the Earth, and Trade Routes: History and Geography. 2nd Johannesburg Biennale (1997); 1998 Taipei Biennal: Site of Desire, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and Global Vision: New Art from the ’90s, Deste Foundation, Athens (1998); and Cities on the Move, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, 48th Venice Biennale, and 3rd Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (1999). Solo exhibitions of Chen Zhen's work have been presented at New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1994); Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal and Deitch Projects, New York (1996); National Maritime Museum, Stockholm, and Tel Aviv Museum of Art (1998); and ADDC-Espace Culturel François Mitterrand, Périgueux (1999).

Education
1973 Shanghai Fine Arts and Crafts School, Shanghai

1978 Shanghai Drama Institute, Shanghai

1986 École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris

1989 Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques, Paris

Selected Further Reading
Chen Zhen and Xian Zhu. Chen Zhen: Transexperiences. Kitakyushu, Japan: Center for Contemporary Art, CCA Kitakyushu, and Korinsha Press & Co., Ltd., 1998.

Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece. Global Vision: New Art from the ’90s, Part II (1998). Exhibition brochure, text by Katerina Gregos.

Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel. Chen Zhen: Jue Chang/Fifty Strokes to Each (1998). Exhibition catalogue, texts by Nehama Guralnik, Mordechai Omer; correspondence between Nehama Guralnik and Chen Zhen.

Pujo, Aline. Chen Zhen: Les Pas Silencieux/Silent Paces, 5 Projets aux ƒtats-Unis 1994-1997. Paris: L’Association Française d’Action Artistique, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, 1997. Published on the occasion of Chen Zhen’s installation in Artists Projects, the re-opening show at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York, 1998.

Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal. Chen Zhen (1996). Exhibition catalogue, texts by Claude Gosselin and Hou Hanru.