ZHANG YU 张羽
EXPO Chicago 2026 | April 9 – 12, 2026
QUALIA
ZHANG YU 张羽
b. 1959, Tianjin, China
Lives and works in Beijing, China
Zhang Yu has spent decades pushing ink beyond the conventions of ink painting, treating the medium as a site of material, conceptual, and historical inquiry. As one of the central figures of China’s experimental ink movement in the 1990s, Zhang approached ink as an open problem: how to create something unprecedented within one of the most tradition-bound mediums in Chinese art. He later reflected that he was preoccupied with “how to make something that did not already exist in art history.” In Zhang’s practice, ink is no longer asked to depict the world so much as to generate one.
In the famed Divine Light series, on view in Chicago, Zhang rejects figuration and suppresses the trace of the brush, allowing ink to pool, diffuse, and stain xuan paper. The result feels both cosmic and tactile: halos, granular dispersions, and subtle tonal shifts resemble celestial bodies, erosion, and film grain, while the paper itself shifts from passive to active.
These rare works, produced in the 1990s and early 2000s, have since entered major institutional collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Other placements include the Chinese Culture Center in San Francisco, the Benetton collection in Venice, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, and the Estella Collection.
Divine Light Series No. 15: Floating Incomplete Circle, 1995
Ink on xuan paper
38.19 x 37.80 in | 97 x 96 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
8746, 1987
paper, brush, ink, powder laundry detergent
21.65 x 20.08 in | 55 x 51 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
Rice
Fingerprints 2014. 7-1, 2014
Rice paper, plant pigment
29.53 x 28.74 in | 75 x 73 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
Fingerprints 2012. 4-2, 2012
Rice paper, water
38.98 x 35.43 in | 99 x 90 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
Fingerprints 2013. 5-1, 2013
Rice paper, water
29.92 x 29.92 in | 76 x 76 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
paper, brush, ink, powder laundry detergent
21.65 x 20.08 in | 55 x 51 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽 8809, 1988
Rice
Fingerprints 2014. 9-1, 2014
Rice paper, ink
45.28 x 40.55 in | 115 x 103 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
21.65 x 20.08 in | 55 x 51 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
8807, 1988
Rice paper, brush, ink, powder laundry detergent
Installation View: Zhang Yu: Ink Reconstructed (On view May 3 – Jun 7, 2025) | Photo by Brent Hayden
Divine Light Series No. 71: Floating Incomplete Rectangle, 2001
Ink on xuan paper
49.21 x 46.85 in | 125 x 119 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
Divine Light Series No. 87: Floating Incomplete Rectangle, 2004
Ink on xuan paper
49.21 x 46.85 in | 125 x 119 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
Filling Tea 20170416-0712, 2017
Rice paper, water and Chinese beauty tea
53.54 x 26.77 in | 136 x 68 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
Fingerprints 2015. 6-1, 2015
Rice paper, ink
29.53 x 27.95 in | 75 x 71 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
Fingerprints 2014. 7-2, 2014
Rice paper, ink
29.53 x 28.74 in | 75 x 73 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
Views of Water, 2022
Specialty paper, spray paint
11.81 x 51.18 in | 30 x 130 cm
ZHANG YU 张羽
ZHANG YU 张羽
b. 1959, Tianjin, China; lives and works in Beijing, China
Selected Public Collections
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
Chinese Culture Center, San Francisco, USA
Benetton Museum, Venice, Italy
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
Chengdu Modern Art Museum, Chengdu, China
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025
ZHANG Yu: Ink Reconstructed, Qualia Contemporary Art, Palo Alto, USA
2022–2023
Zhang Yu: Doing Art for 30 Years, Inno Art, Hsinchu, Taiwan
2021–2022
Zhang Yu · Me & Beuys: Press and Trigger, HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2019
Zhang Yu: Fingerprints: Boundaries of Time and Truth, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong Farewell and Leaving: from Wang Wei to Zhang Yu, Art Museum of Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, Xi’an, China
2018
Mountain Plan 2: Water • Ink • Mountain, Square of Chiu Feng Chia Memorial Hall, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan Fabrication: The “Being” of Zhang Yu’s Art, Hung Kuang University Art Centre, Taichung, Taiwan
2017
Meeting Zhang Yu in the East China Sea, Lu Si Yi Church; Tunghai University Art Centre, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan
2016
Water Feeding, Nanshan Temple, Youguo Temple, Wutai Mountain; Cuiyan Peak, Zhongtai, Quzhou, China
2015
2nd Xiaozhou Dynamic Image Project: Behavior and Image Symbiosis, Works by Zhang Yu, Xiaozhou People’s Hall, Guangzhou, China
b. 1959, Tianjin, China; lives and works in Beijing, China
Selected Solo Exhibitions (cont.)
2014
Zhang Yu: The Form of Notion/Thought, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Fundamental: Zhang Yu’s Visual Darwinism, Sanshang Contemporary Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
2013
Cultivation Practice: Exhibition of Zhang Yu’s Fingerprint Works 1991–2013, Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea
Conception and Form: Exhibition of Zhang Yu’s Works, Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery, Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Monastery, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Drinking a Toasting at Martell-Ink and Wash, Martell Chateau, Cognac, France
Selected Group Exhibitions / Museum Presentations
2025-2026
Metamorphosis: Chinese Imagination and Transformation, China Institute Gallery, New York, USA
2024–2025
Forty Years of Contemporary Ink in China 1985–2024 Travelling Exhibition, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing; Xinjiang Art Museum, Urumqi, China
2024
Contemporary Logic of a Pure and Remote View, Wuhan Art Museum (Qintai), Wuhan, China
2023–2024
Delight in the Invisible: Abstract Narrative of Momentary, Ming Yuan Art Museum, Shanghai, China (exhibition curator and participating artist)
2023
Tiny Steps—Yuan Art Museum Triennial, Yuan Art Museum-Wuqing, Tianjin, China
Kunming Art Biennale: Writing and Boundary, Yunnan Art Museum, Kunming, China
Ink Alchemy: Beyond Tradition, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong
7th Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
2022
Existence & Repetition, Chun Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Beyond Ink, Qualia Contemporary Art, Palo Alto, USA
2021
Ink Dreams: Selections from the Fondation INK Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
b. 1959, Tianjin, China; lives and works in Beijing, China
Select Group Exhibitions / Museum Presentations (cont.)
2020
Brushless, Alisan Fine Arts-Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Moving, Wuqing Gallery, Yuan Art Museum, Tianjin, China
Longing for Nature: Reading Landscapes in Chinese Art, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, Switzerland
Shanghai Waves: Historical Archives and Works of Shanghai Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China
Ways of Working: Artists’ Time, Space and Body, One Art Museum, Beijing, China
Contemporary Forms of Ink Painting, Art Basel Online Viewing Rooms, Alisan Fine Arts; Alisan Fine Arts-Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Taipei Dangdai, Alisan Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
2019
Brushing Nature Landscape Paintings, Ink Asia, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong
Perception over Limit: The Word of Being and Time, Shanghai Ming Yuan Art Museum, Shanghai, China
The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China Travelling Exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA
Landscapes: Being Suppressed Nature, Li Yinglu Art Museum, Daejeon, Korea
Spearhead: International Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Ink Art, Shanghai Ming Yuan Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2018
Minimalism: Space, Light, Object, ArtScience Museum, Singapore
INK, Göppingen Art Museum, Göppingen, Germany
Ink Worlds: Contemporary Chinese Painting from the Collection of Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA
Post-Brushwork Era: Chinese Landscapes, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou; Zhejiang Museum, Hangzhou, China
1st International Sculpture Exhibition Pingyao, Pingyao Machinery Factory, Pingyao, China
Chinese New Ink Painting 1978–2018, Minsheng Modern Art Museum, Beijing, China
2015
The Context in Paper: Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, Columbia College, Chicago, USA
Termination of Writing: Inoue Yuichi, Lee Ufan, Zhang Yu, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
All the World’s Futures, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Art London, London, UK
Writing Non-Writing, Art Museum of China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China
QUALIA CONTEMPORARY ART
Praised by renowned art historian Alexander Nemerov as “a hidden gem in Silicon Valley,” Qualia Contemporary Art presents a diverse program of emerging and established artists working across a wide range of media and is dedicated to facilitating dialogue between Asian and international contemporary practices.
Since opening in Fall 2020, the gallery has mounted over 30 exhibitions: highlights from these presentations include the U.S. debuts of Pan Hsinhua, Lyu Peng, and Xu Hongming; local artists like Younhee Paik, Stella Zhang, Nick Dong, and Joe Ferriso; and internationally-recognized artists including Paul DeMarinis, Guillermo Galindo, Yang Jiechang, and Wang Tiande.
The gallery has also collaborated with leading Chinese artists such as Xu Bing, Wang Dongling, Gu Wenda, and Gu Gan, as well as with prominent scholars including Alexander Nemerov, Richard Vinograd, Ouyang Jianghe, and Xie Xiaoze.
