Zhang Hui 张慧 (b. 1967)

A key member of the “Post-Sense Sensibility” artistic collaborative, Zhang Hui imbues scenes of everyday and family life with a dreamlike surreality. Having recently turned from installation, theater, and performance to painting, Zhang is interested in perception, which he sees as shaped by our knowledge, memories, and emotions. In his paintings, Zhang aims to capture and convey his own perception of the world specifically, as well as the process of perception generally, seeking to portray the overlapping of reality and our interpretation and memories of it. In Happy New Year (2009-10), for example, Zhang presents incongruently snow-covered diners sitting, in summer clothes, at an outdoor restaurant—collapsing a real scene photographed at a real restaurant with his playful re-imagining of it in the middle of winter.