REBIRTH

It is a great satisfaction to bring to Italy for the first time Zhang Huan’s ash painitings; an artist whose multiple forms of expression are intrinsically linked, in accordance with a typical practice in Chinese art, to the life of the artist who is at the centre of his own art.

His experimental use of atypical materials such as the ash from incense burnt as a prayer offering in Buddhist temples in Beijing, is thus not simply experimentation, but a reference which conceals deeper iconographic origins. “…ash is not ash, nor is it a material, it is a kind of collective soul, collective memory, and collective blessing.” Zhang Huan Zhang Huan’s strength is his use of innovation to reinterpret tradition, his ability to render contemporary a profound link with the art, icons and themes of Chinese tradition, which lie at the root of all his work.