Chen Tianzhuo
Born in 1985, Tianzhuo Chen currently lives and works in Beijing, China. After graduating from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in London, he received his Master’s in Fine Arts degree from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London. As a young generation artist, Tianzhuo Chen skillfully works between the artistic disciplines of installation, performance, video, drawing on paper and photography. Many of his artworks require others’ participation or that of the audience so to take the form of a “happening”, such as an underground party, staged performance, or more conceptually, a constructed ritual site, and ultimately transforming reality into fantasy. Within his artworks, Chen mixes his well versed knowledge of elements and symbols found in religion (like Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Shamanism, etc.), subculture (like cult cultures, drag and rave, etc.), popular culture (such as cartoons, hip hop and electronic music, etc.) and dance (like Japanese Butoh and Vogueing) in order to juxtapose the atmosphere and cause the audience/participants to transcend both superficial sates of the body and spirit. Ultimately, arriving at, what the artist himself has referred to, as a “state of madness”. Tianzhuo Chen’s strong artistic purpose allows him to more freely gather and utilize a diverse range of media. In addition to sculpture, video, installation and drawing, he synthesizes work by including forms of popular culture, such as clothing, music, parties and performance. Tianzhuo Chen’s important solo exhibitions include Tianzhuo Chen (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2015), Picnic Paradi$e Bitch (BANK, Shanghai, 2014) and Tianzhuo’s Acid Club (Star Gallery, Beijing, 2013). He has also participated in group exhibitions, such as Observer-Creator: The Representation of Reality through Young Chinese Art (Central Academy of Fine Art Museum, Beijing, 2015), Tomorrow’s Party (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2014) and Decorum: Carpets and Tapestries by Artists (Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2014) and Existence: Group Exhibition on Young Artists (Shanghai MoCA, Shanghai, 2013).