Blindspot Gallery is pleased to return to West Bund Art & Design 2025 (Booth 2F06), featuring the solo presentation of artist Zhang Wenzhi. The booth will feature his latest works, including ink paintings, folding screen, long scrolls, and sculptures. Zhang’s practice is rooted in the historical, geographical, and cultural landscape of his hometown Dalian, a portal through which he delves into the Northeast China region and the imprints of colonialism it bears. The cultural history of the region dating to the early 20th century and the subsequent industrialization and modernization of the area are fundamental to Zhang’s practice. Zhang uses ink as a primary medium of painting, integrating elements of folklore, legends, and archival materials to explore history through a contemporary lens, excavating the derelict and forgotten amid power shifts and urbanization.

Zhang’s paintings meander through the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong, cruising up North with Mazu, the Chinese goddess of the sea, passing through Dalian and advancing to Changbai Mountain, before finally arriving at Sakhalin (a present- day part of Russia). The scenes take us through mountains and seas, tracing the Northeast region’s colonial history while trailing trade routes, channels of belief dissemination, pathways of industrialization, and the environmental exploitation that ensued. The narratives in his paintings confront colonial traumas and underline the interconnections between humans and nature.

Whale Sea (2025) is an expansive scene unfurled across six folding screens. The recto presents a theatrical depiction of a whale mother and her calf, of the North Pacific right whale species, swimming in the “Whale Sea” (鯨海, known today as the Sea of Japan) while escorting the goddess Mazu as her envoy. The painting thereby constructs a dialogue between oceanic beliefs and geopolitical dynamics. The whales are modelled on taxidermy specimens from the Dalian Natural History Museum, the calf being a foetus extracted from the mother whale duringdissection. Surrounding the maternal whale and her calf are various prehistoric creatures and mythical beasts native to the area surrounding the Whale Sea, including the Pakicetus (a primeval ancestor to the whale), the dragonhead fish (an evolved form of the whale), the three-headed horse (the artist’s imagined beast which embodies Jeju Island’s myth of the Three Clans and the area’s horse-raising history), and the Fish Woman (a fish transformed from a serpent in the Classics of Mountains and Seas, a classical Chinese text that records mythical beings and geographies).

In the painting, the skeleton of the mother whale is partially exposed, unveiling the vast mountains and seas of Sakhalin Island embedded within her colossal body. The deity Mazu descends upon them, her origins tracing back to Meizhou Island in Fujian. She has been revered as the goddess of the sea since the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279), protecting ships embarking on long voyages. Above the figure of Mazu, a whaling ship and a Fujian trading junk sail alongside them, alluding to Dalian’s whaling history and Fujian’s prosperous maritime trade.

In contrast to the intricate tableau on the front, the verso reduces the image to its bare essentials—a minimalist depiction of marine flora—a nod to the notion of “liubai” (leaving blank) in traditional Chinese ink painting. Kelp is a common algal plant in the Bohai Sea, the northwestern part of the Yellow Sea, whereas the sea lilies Zhang depicts take the form of ancient marine fossils, embodying the passage of time. In Whale Sea, history and nature, legend and fantasy entwine, bearing testament to the changes in the region’s geopolitical landscape and the resilience of beliefs through the currents of time.

Animal deities and biological specimens are common motifs in Zhang’s paintings. He often portrays the shamanic deer god, reflecting the prominence of the religious tradition in Northeast China. In Deer Calling Peak (2025), the artist expands on the image of the deer god who gazes at the sacred tree of Changbai Mountain nestled in the top left hand corner of Whale Sea. The deer’s antlers evolve into lingzhi (reishi mushrooms), with parts of its body revealing its muscular ligaments beneath. The deer reclines on wild fungi and fauna, interspersed with chimeric beings and half-human-half-insect hybrids, illustrating the symbiosis and coexistence of all beings in the forest.

Auspicious Tree (2025) is a reimagination of the sacred tree, which bears eight different types of leaves, symbolizing spirituality and power. During the Kangxi and Qianlong periods (1654 – 1799), “Auspicious Tree” paintings emerged as a genre of court art, with various trees imbued with meanings of authority and auspiciousness. Zhang pays homage to the “Qing Dynasty Auspicious Tree Painting” (清宮瑞樹圖), reinterpreting it from a modern point of view. In the painting, various species of birds populate the tree: the falcon perched on the tree top stands for the Jurchen people, while the shrike beneath it is known for its fierce nature; the Bohemian waxwing is metaphoric of prosperity, whereas the crested Eurasian hoopoe wears a “crown,” representative of royalty. These birds are symbolic of the political landscape during the inception of the Qing Dynasty: the Jurchen people entered the Central Plains in Northern China, pacified the region through military means, and established the dynasty, before further expanding their territorial boundaries. Lodged in the center of the tree is a ginseng toddler, personifying the flourishing ginseng production in the Northeast, an important source of trade for the region. Sheltered underneath the tree is a hazel grouse which stands on rocks surrounded by rusted mechanical gears shrouded beneath overgrown moss and fungi, alluding to the rise and fall of industrialization in the Northeast. Exhibited alongside the painting is Eight Leaves of the Auspicious Tree (2025), a group of sculptures painted with the eight leaves of the tree—the artist’s “physical specimens” that enrich the painting with a natural historical angle.

In Wenna (2025), the artist envisions a canine-reptilian chimera, possessing the top half of a dog and the lower half of a serpent, attempting to flee the chaos of war together with a small cluster of sparrows encased in outer clam shells. The warships in the back are a reference to the Russo-Japanese War (1904 – 1905), during which the Three Northeastern Provinces of China (Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang) became targets of rivalry for imperialism and colonization.

Zhang describes ink painting as his “rhetorical device”. This year, he was one of the artists shortlisted for the fourth edition of the biennial Liu Kuo-sung Ink Art Award. One of the jurists, Alan Yeung, Associate Curator, Ink Art, M+, remarked: “[Zhang’s work] expands on the context of ‘new gongbi’ by challenging the stereotype of ink art as monochrome gestural abstraction, and helps to redirect the field beyond medium, style, and aesthetics towards discourse, deconstruction, and critical reflexivity.”

Throughout Chinese art history, and within the broader discipline, ink painting has maintained an enduring continuity. Zhang uses the age-old medium to trace back cultural lineage, locality, and geopolitical dynamics, bridging historical and contemporary contexts. In doing so, he probes how these notions shape individual experience and identity today, and further reveal how tradition and modernity are constantly tied in dialogue.

Booth
2F06

Venue
West Bund International Convention and Exhibition Center (7, Longyao Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai)

Artist
Zhang Wenzhi

Exhibition Dates
November 14 – 16, 2025

Website
https://blindspotgallery.com/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/blindspotgallery/

Contact
info@blindspotgallery.com

About Artist

Zhang Wenzhi (b.1993, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China) creates collagesque ink paintings which interweave Chinese modern history, folklore, popular science, and archival materials. Using his hometown as an entry point, Zhang spotlights the convoluted history of Northeast China, particularly the period dating to the late Qing Dynasty, delineating the repercussions of the past in the present. The region was once exploited by various colonial powers before undergoing rapid urbanization, leaving it in a collective state of amnesia. Zhang depicts spirit animals and mythological creatures, including the Deer god, pointing to the prominence of shamanism in Northeast China. They become metaphoric of life and prosperity in a place once subjected to trauma and constant shifts in power. In Zhang’s paintings, these auspicious creatures are juxtaposed against a vast landscape where historical and mythological motifs are nestled within industrial infrastructures, bearing witness to the region’s ever-unfolding changes and complex historical tapestry. Zhang obtained his BA in Fine Arts in 2015, and MFA in 2018 from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He participated in group exhibitions at Aranya Art Center (Beidaihe, 2025), Wind H Museum (Beijing, 2024), White Rabbit Gallery (Sydney, 2024), Beijing Times Art Museum (Beijing, 2024), MACA Art Center (Beijing, 2022), OCAT Shenzhen (2021), Garry Culture Center (Beijing, 2020), Anren Biennale (2019), Guardian Art Center (Beijing, 2018), National Agricultural Exhibition Center (Beijing, 2016) and CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, 2016). Zhang currently lives and works in Beijing, China.

About Gallery

Set up in 2010, Blindspot Gallery is a contemporary art gallery based in Hong Kong. The gallery features diverse contemporary art practices, by emerging, established, and diasporic artists mainly from Asia and beyond. The gallery is committed to connecting its represented artists with an international platform and fostering global dialogues in the art community through its exhibition program and institutional collaborations.

(Text and images courtesy of Blindspot Gallery)