Born in Beijing in December 1962, Zhan Wang graduated from the Beijing School of Arts and Crafts in 1981, was admitted to the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 1983, graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in 1988, and graduated from the postgraduate course of the Sculpture Department of CAFA in 1996, and now works and lives in Beijing.
After graduation, he entered the Institute of Sculpture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, specializing in creative work, and in 2003, he was transferred to the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) as a professor of sculpture creation. 1995, he set up a Three-person Joint Studio with Sui Jianguo and Yu Fan; In 1998, he published his academic paper "Conceptual Sculpture - Materialized Concepts" in Art Research; in 1999, he curated the "Fifty Years Retrospective of Sculpture at the Institute of Fine Arts". During his tenure as the director of the Institute of Sculpture, he organized three experimental exhibitions of open studios, among which the "Obsession with Harm" triggered an international controversy; In 2003, the Third Studio of the Sculpture Department was formed, advocating the goal of training contemporary artists in the context of the Sculpture Department and practicing the method of curating exhibitions to promote teaching.
In the early days, his work has been influenced by Pop Art, he created super colorful realistic sculptures, represented by Sitting Girl (1990) and so on; from the mid-1990s, he was influenced by Conceptual Art, represented by the performance project 94 Ruin Cleaning Project (1994); then, integrating his sculpture expertise and explored the creative direction of Conceptual Sculpture, and his representative works include the series of Mao Suit (1994), the Artificial Rock(Jiashanshi) series created since 1995 and New Map of Beijing -Rockery Remodeling Plan(1996); His representative personal projects include: "Burial: Shell of Mao Suits" (2002), "Floating Rock Drifts on the Open Sea" (2000), "Project to Inlay the Great Wall" (2001), "Urban Landscape" series (2002), and so on. His art is considered to have the quality of using simple material forms to formulate complex problems, and he has created various experimental artworks in sculpture, installation, photography, video and public art. In recent years, he has created various new works by overlapping interdisciplinary working methods, such as Suyuan Stone Generator—One Hour Equals 100 Million Years, and a video installation My Personal Universe, which he started to create in 2010, Forms in Flux, the computer algorithm work in collaboration with a mathematician in 2016. In addition, he has also created the latest works such as Finitude/Infinitude(2021)and Match Openings: Particle (2022.
Zhan Wang has held more than twenty solo exhibitions and solo projects at home and abroad in his solo art career, the main solo exhibitions such as “Kong Ling· Kong—Temptation series”，(Central Academy of Fine Art Gallery, 1994), “Garden Utopia”, (National Art Museum of China,2008), “Suyuan Stone Generator - 1Hour Equals 100 Million Years”, (Today Art Museum, 2010), “Zhan Wang: My Personal Universe”, (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, 2011), “Forms in Flux “, (Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai,2017).and his works have participated in many international contemporary art biennials and triennials and sculpture exhibition in Venice, Shanghai, Singapore, Guangzhou Belgium, Hawaii, Holland, Australia, and Toronto, etc. In 2003, he was selected to participate in the first Chinese Pavilion of the 50th Venice Biennale. He has published more than ten books and albums. His works have been collected by several museums as the first contemporary Chinese sculptures, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and The British Museum in London, and in 2000 he was named by Japan's Art Handbook as one of the 100 Global Most Discussed Artists.
2020Zhan Wang: Objects of Idea, Long March Space, Beijing
2019The Invisible :Zhan Wang, Eslite Gallery, Taipei
2017Forms in Flux, Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai
2015Nothing for the Time Being, OCAT, Shanghai
2014Morph, Long March Space Beijing 798
2012Form of Formless, Long March Space,Beijing
2012Universe, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore
2011Zhan Wang: My Personal Universe, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing
2010Suyuan Stone Generator - 1Hour Equals 100 Million Years, Today Art Museum, Beijing
Zhan Wang：Reflection, Eslite Gallery, Taipei
2008Zhan Wang: Garden Utopia, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
On Gold Mountain: Sculptures from The Sierra by Zhan Wang, Asian art museum, San Francisco, USA
86 Divinity Figures, Long March Space, Beijing
Zhan Wang, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2006Zhan Wang: Urban Landscape – Beijing, Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts, USA
2005Flowers in the Mirror, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
2002From Sweden to Taipei, Taipei-Tai Zhong
2001Sham Nature--Zhan Wang’s Artificial ‘Jia Shan Shi’, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
2000Beyond Twelve Nautical Miles--Floating Rock Drifts On The Open Sea, Lingshan Island Jiaonan City, Shandong Province
1994Kong Ling· Kong—Temptation series，Central Academy of Fine Art Gallery, Beijing
2021Fractal Structure - Infinite Shan Shui,The Chuan Malt Whisky Distillery Emeishan, Sichuan
2020Prosperity, Zhaotai International Center，Beijing
2019Insight and Vision—Sensing (Jya Art Project), UCCA Lab, UCCA Contemporary Art Center, Beijing
2004Mount Everest Project - to the Summit, Everest 8853.5m, China
2002Burial: Shell of Mao Suits, underneath the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou
2001Inlay the Great Wall, Remnant Great wall of Ba Daling, Beijing
In & out --Floating Rock on Sweden，Gothenburg, Sweden
2000Beyond Twelve Nautical Miles - Floating Rock Drifts On The Open Sea, 12 nautical miles off Lingshan Island, Jiaonan, Qingdao, Shandong
1995Property Development project by the Three Men United Studio, Sculpture Department ruins of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing
Women/Here, the second project by the Three Men United Studio, Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing
199494 Ruin Cleaning Project, Wangfujing, Beijing
2020GQ Artist of the Year
Robb Report Best of the Best Awards for Artist
2017Robb Report Best of the Best Awards for Artist
2011Harper’s Bazaar Men’s Style
AAC Art China·Annual Influence
2006Martell Extraordinary Artist Award
Selected for inclusion in the American University textbook of art history, The Power of Art
2000100 Global Most Discussed Artists, Art Handbook, Japan