Zhang Huan

Zhang Huan lives and works in New York, but is originally from the He Nan Province in China. He picked up an M.A. at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing– but I doubt any of his professors ever had any clue what he would go on to do with his work. Zhang says he is “interested in pushing his body to its physical limits”– something that has earned him some serous international acclaim. His work runs the gauntlet from daredevil to traditionally trained painter and performance artist. He deals with major issues facing human-psyche including what it was like to move from Bejing into New York (check out his work called My America). He’s quite critical and sometimes very grotesque–but seems so talented and passionate. He’s seen here lying naked on his stomach face-down on a block of ice (which he did for 10 minutes) in P.S 1 in New York, which he called Pilgrimage. Check out more of his work, seriously good.