Zhang Xu Zhan is an artist and film director who was born into a family of paper crafters who own the century-old Hsin-Hsin Paper Offering Store in Sinjhuang, Taipei. Zhang specializes in crafting expressive paper-mache as sculpture and animates them in his of stop-motion films. Spanning from luxury mansions and oversized paper dolls to intricate depictions of mythological animals and flowers, his works revolve around absurd and bizarre images, and also encapsulate his wry observations on strange social phenomena and the cul-de-sac his family business faces. Extending beyond paper art, Zhang is also skilled in utilizing various mediums, including animation, video art, experimental film, stop-motion paper doll techniques, and multichannel video installations.
Zhang won the Best Animated Short Film at the Taiwan Golden Horse Film Award in 2022 and became the first Taiwanese winner of the Deutsche Bank Artists of the Year Award 2021. His solo exhibitions were held at Taipei Fine Arts Museum (Taipei, 2022), Taipei Digital Art Center (Taipei, 2015), Taiwan National Museum (Taipei, 2012) among others. His works were also shown in group exhibitions at Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) and Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) (Queensland, 2024 and 2012), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Fokuoka, 2022 and 2011), Palais Populaire (Belin, 2021), National Museum of Indonesia (Jakarta, 2021), Asia Culture Center (Gwangju, 2020), Yokohama Museum (Yokohama, 2020), Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (Taipei, 2020, 2016, 2015, 2014), Institute d’art contemporain (Lyon, 2019), Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (Taipei, 2019 and 2016), Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai, 2010), Power Station of Art (Shanghai, 2018), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul, 2018), Taiwan National Museum (Taipei, 2020 and 2018) among others. He also participated in numerous film festivals, including Taichung International Animation Film Festival (Taichung, 2018), Taiwan Golden Horse Film Festival (Taipei, 2018), World Festival of Animated Film ANIMAFEST ZAGREB (Zagreb 2018), Taipei Film Festival (Taipei, 2018), Asolo Art Film Festival (Asolo, 2015), among others.
Zhang currently lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan