Zhang Hongmei, Yellow Landscape N°1, 2016, Fabric & Collage

Zhang Hongmei - Biography Born in 1973, she graduated in 1996 at the faculty of textile design at the Shangdong Academy of Fine Arts; in 2001, she obtained a second degree in textile design at the University of Qinghua, where she attended a Master’s to qualify in teaching. She taught art from 1996 to 1998 at the Shangdong Trade-Union Administrative Institute as an adjunct professor. From 2000 to 2001, she taught textile design at the Institute of Education for people with disabilities. Since 2000, she has collaborated with the most important Italian, English and Chinese textile design companies. In 2000, she began her painting career with exhibitions and collaborations in the United States, central and southern America and Europe. Her work has developed through research dedicated to abstraction, but is still connected to certain historic references deriving from Chinese realism. In 2001, she became a permanent teacher at the faculty of textile design at the Shangdong Academy of Fine Arts. In 2010 she was present at the II Biennale of Sabbioneta. In 2011 she exhibited in Denver at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and in Miami at the Kavachnina Gallery. In 2012 she presented a video on her works at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. She organized, together with other important Chinese artists, a collective exhibition in Alessandria, Italy, called Oltremao and had a solo exhibition at the Chinese Institute of Culture in Berlin. In 2013, at the Chinese Institute of Culture in Madrid, she inaugurated the exhibition "Zhang Hongmei obras Recientes" and the City of Barolo invited her to set up a personal exhibition in the contest of "Collisioni". In 2014 she exhibited in China at the Dalian Art Exhibition Hall and in Hohhot at the National Art Museum. She was invited to Paris at the International Exhibition of Graphics and Design. In 2015 she exhibited at the Biennale of Venice within the "Friendship Project China" promoted by the Republic of San Marino. She made 12 works on the Passion of Christ, a very unusual topic for Chinese artists, for the community of Sordevolo, a village that hosts one of the most famous Passion Plays in the world every five years. In 2016 she was at Gotha, the prestigious international market exhibition in Parma, and she was involved in many happenings in China organized by the Government. In 2018 the Pirra Art Gallery, in Turin, organized a solo exhibition in collaboration with Vincenzo Sanfo and Diffusione Italia International Group, simultaneously with an installation at the Courtyard of the University.