Statement
My paintings deal with my memories and experiences of dual histories, one of my native country, China, and the other of my subsequent journey in America, where I currently reside. I grew up in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution, a time of social unrest. There was widespread propaganda, heavy censorship, violence, forced manual labor, and personal expression was discouraged, all which led me to question the place of individual self in relation to its society. In my paintings, I explore memories of that time in relation to how Chinese culture has evolved through encounters with western culture, both in China and in myself. My images revolve around tensions between coexisting and often conflicting elements of modern society; I am interested in dualisms such as industrialization and nature, tradition/history and erasure, political structures and the individual, high and low culture, capitalism and alienation, and material body and soul. I use symbols of construction, detritus, ritual, subtle violence, and ambivalence to reference the emotional effect of being caught in the middle of uncontrollable forces, both in the present time and in my experience of the Cultural Revolution years. I am interested in construction and deconstruction of not only buildings and systems, but also of individual memories, emotions, and scenes. I pull from my past and present photographic archive and combine different spaces and times to create a build up of moments from an individual narrative into a constructed whole. My focal point lies in questioning what Chinese-American identity and culture is, exploring its contradictions in relation to my specific lived history and metaphors of displacement and in-betweenness.
CV
Education
1989 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine
1987 MFA, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
1982 BFA, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Satellite Art Show, Brooklyn, NY
Satellite Art Show, Miami
1999 Yale University, CT
1998 Middle Tennessee State University, TN
1990 Z Gallery, New York
Group Exhibitions
2019 Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan
Saatchi Art's The Other Fair, Brooklyn, NY
2018 Miao Art Space, Shanghai, China
2009 Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
2006 Gallery North, New York
1996 Asian American Arts Center, New York
1994 Gallery at Park West, New York
1993 Sudderth Art International, Florida
1990 Muse Gallery, Massachusetts
1989 "China Avant-Garde Exhibition", National Fine Art Museum, Beijing, China
Galerie Werner Milletin, Germany
1988 Shanghai Fine Art Museum, Shanghai, China
1987 Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
1986 National Fine Art Museum, Beijing, China
1985 National Fine Art Museum, Beijing, China
Shanghai Fine Art Museum, Shanghai, China
1984 Shanghai Fine Art Museum, Shanghai, China
1983 Shanghai Fine Art Museum, Shanghai, China
1982 Shanghai Fine Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Museum Collection
National Treasure Museum, Japan
Publications & Press
2020 SVA Visual Arts Journal, Spring/Summer 2020 Vol.28, Art Space Oddity
2019 New York Magazine, The Cut, Meet 10 Emerging Artists From the Other Art Fair
Canvas by Saatchi Art, Interview, Brooklyn: Furong Zhang
HocTok, #What Matters by Furong Zhang
Awards and Honors
1989 Fellowship for Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
1985 Second Place, National Fine Art Exhibition of Youth, Beijing, China
Teaching Experience
1982-1989 Lecturer, Fine Art Department, Shanghai Normal University, China