Among the leading contemporary artists in China, with a practice deeply informed by traditional and contemporary Chinese philosophy, culture, and society, Zhan Wang produces sculptures and installations that are both boldly physical and tantalizingly conceptual. Rocks—real and fabricated—are recurring motifs and materials in his work, through which he explores the intertwining of human and natural history and our relationship with urban and natural landscapes. In his ongoing “Artificial Rocks” series, one of his most celebrated projects, Zhan fabricates stainless steel replicas of “scholar’s rocks”, the famously unusual rocks traditionally found on the desks and in the gardens of Chinese intellectuals and used as objects of meditation and contemplation. With their mirrored surfaces, Zhan’s rocks effectively block attempts to retreat from the world through absorbed contemplation by …