Creating a whimsical world often depicting young girls surrounded by creatures drawn from her own imagination, Zhan Tianmu’s protagonists are illuminated in a soft, cool palette. Seeing her paintings as a means of liberation and release, Zhang offers a world of reprieve, despite the complexity of experience and emotion within. The half-lidded gaze of her girl protagonists completes the dreamlike daze of her paintings, sometimes looking off to the side in languorous wonder, sometimes staring straight at the viewer. Despite the undercurrent of loneliness, Zhang’s works are peaceful, with figures seemingly suspended in time and space.
As an interdisciplinary artist, Zhang works across mediums including paper clay, polymer clay, and cardboard, citing fabric as most suited to her working methods. Interestingly, Zhang recalls a particular distaste for cute characters originating early from her childhood. Her works balance a pretty delicacy with provocative titles which allude to the ‘stream-of-consciousness’ nature of her works, encouraging more intimate contact with her viewer as she subverts the sorrows and ugly absurdities of daily life.
Born in 1971 in Jilin, Zhan Tianmu majored in Chinese Painting at the National Huaqiao University, furthering her studies at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in mural painting. She currently lives and works in Beijing and Shenzhen.