Zhang Enli - His Life

His Life

Zhang Enli’s work is heavily marked by the personal transition and move he made 20 years ago from the provincial town of Jilin in the north of China to Shanghai. By focusing on ordinary objects and the everyday in his work, the artist represents the contrast between the small city and the sprawling metropolis - between two differing states of mind and environment.

Unlike many of his Chinese contemporaries, Zhang Enli’s practice does not bear relation to consumer criticism, ‘Political Pop’, ‘Kitsch Art’, or ‘Cynical Realism’ that emerged from China during the art boom of their post-socialist society in the 1990s, but instead focuses on the familiar and often overlooked everyday objects and environments the artist encounters on a daily basis, viewed from a unique perspective.

His works are mostly composed in series, such as his paintings that focus on the idea of the container — namely cardboard boxes, ashtrays, tin chests, or lavatories. Other works depict functional municipal structures that fill the streets of Shanghai, such as public toilets and tiled outdoor water features. Choosing to focus on such seemingly banal and insignificant features, Zhang Enli does not make any grand statement to politics or immortality. He does not aim to form idealistic or metaphorical concepts or compensate unpleasant realities, making his work neither traditional, superficially critical, nor overly sentimental. Furthermore, he believes that ”contacts” and “public relations” do not constitute an essential part of creativity, but that only in isolation and silence, he can reflect, observe, and experience wherever his creativity leads him.