Zhu Jia 朱加

A seminal figure in contemporary Chinese video art, Zhu Jia trained in oil painting but has worked exclusively in photography and video since the late 1980s. His work, stylistically minimalist but not without a visual punch, interrogates aspects of the quotidian during a time of profound economic, social, and political transformation, touching upon socially taboo topics and the mundane. In works like Forever (1994) and Continuous Landscape (1999-2000), Zhu takes his camera on a dizzying course through Chinese cities, offering new means of making sense of a rapidly changing urban environment. Recent Chinese history, including the legacy of the Cultural Revolution and the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and the state’s uncomfortable relationship with contemporary art, also bear heavily on Zhu’s work.