Yunyao Zhang

With references to classical and Renaissance sculpture, painter Zhang Yunyao uses graphite and pastels on felt canvases to create large-scale, figurative works that form contemporary dialogues with the past. Zhang uses a demanding and precise technique to apply his materials to the matted fabric, creating a relief effect that is further enhanced by the way the materials combine with the textured surface to reflect light. His works appear to be composites of different angles of the same sculptural forms; overlapping depictions of multiple subjects fade into each other, creating new correspondences that suggest suspended film montages. The mythological scale of Zhang’s images demonstrate the continued relevance of ancient ideals in the formation of contemporary understandings of strength, beauty, and power.