Zhao Zhao
PROVOCATEUR
We are pleased to announce the release of PROVOCATEUR, the first English monograph on the work of Chinese artist Zhao Zhao, featuring essays by Hou Hanru and Li Zhenhua. It will be presented at Art Basel Hong Kong and available for purchase at the Flash Art booth (no. 22).
This new title examines Zhao Zhao’s working practice, emblematic for art’s ability to address conflict—social, political, and aesthetic—in a world undergoing unprecedented upheaval. The artist has consistently positioned his art as a counterweight to systems of control that affect and regulate the lives of individuals in China; while his work’s increasingly global reach testifies to its profound resonance beyond his country’s borders. His deft use of a wide range of materials, combined with a tonal elusiveness that veers between the faintly ludic, the sardonic, and the unambiguously confrontational, justify his position as a crucial agent in contemporary cultural discourse.
Hou Hanru (b. 1963, Guangzhou) is a critic and curator based in Rome and San Francisco. Since 2013 he has been the artistic director of MAXXI. He joined the Guggenheim as a consulting curator in 2015.
Li Zhenhua (b. 1975, Beijing) is a writer, curator, and film producer based in Beijing, Berlin, and Zurich. He has curated Art Basel Hong Kong’s film program since its launch in 2014.
