Zhang Xiao graduated from the Department of Architecture and Design at Yantai University in 2005. Before becoming a photography artist in 2009, he was a photojournalist for Chongqing Morning Post. Zhang’s works between 2006 and 2013 often reveal his unique understanding of today’s China and a sense of surrealism that precisely capture the absurdity in the country due to rampant economic changes. The snapshot aesthetic and adoption of ordinary people from daily settings as protagonists are the common threads through his two iconic series They and Coastline. Zhang’s works from 2012 to present mark his shifting focus from the portrayal of life in contemporary China to reflections on his homecoming, and the experiences and presences that surround it. It also demonstrates the artist’s use of a wider range of media in his creative repertoire.
Zhang received the Prix HSBC pour la Photographie in 2011, and the second Hou Dengke Documentary Photography Award in 2009 with Coastline series. He also won the Three Shadows Photography Award in 2010 with They series. In 2015, Zhang participated in “The World in 2015” at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, China. His works have been exhibited extensively in photography festivals including Photoquai at Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, France (2015) and Festival Pluie d’Images in France (2013). Zhang’s works are collected by the Burger Collection; Fidelity Corporate Art Collection in USA; HSBC Foundation for Photography in France and Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in China.
Zhang currently lives and works in Chengdu, China.
