Yatao Zhang
Zhang Yatao，Lives and works in Xiamen, Inner Mongolia, Bangkok
Education
- 2024-Present PhD studies in Fine Arts and Applied Management at Bangkokthonburi University,Thailand
- 2022-2024 Master of Fine Arts and Applied Management (MFA) at Bangkokthonburi University, Thailand
- 2015-2016 Nordic International Visual Art Studio，Inner Mongolia Art University，China
- 2016 Exchange study， The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Denmark
- 2012-2016 Bachelor of Fine Arts， Inner Mongolia University，ChinaSelected
Group Exhibitions
- CORNER 2019，Sophienholm, Denmark, 2019
2.Reconnecting: Dialogue between European and Chinese Civilizations，Ordos International Art Exhibition, China, 2016
3.Ocean Dreams – International Contemporary Art Exhibition，Nordic Contemporary Art Center, Xiamen, China, 2020
4.The 3rd Independent Character Nomination Exhibition，Dagu Bay Art Museum, Beijing, China, 2019(Excellence Award)
5.Shanghai Young Art Fair (5th Edition)，Part of the 21st China Shanghai International Arts Festival,Shanghai, China, 2019
6.Cultural Meet – International Group Exhibition，Farum Cultural Center, Denmark, 2019
7.Connected by the Sea: New Voices from Southern Fujian，Tallbacken Art Center, Sweden, 2023
8.Discovery Journey of Thai Art and Culture，BTU Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand, 2023
9.International Youth Art Exhibition，Liaohe Art Museum, Panjin, China, 2024
10.International Art, Design and Architecture Exhibition，BTU Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand,2025
Solo Exhibitions
1.Against Interpretation，Artand, 2019
2.The Babel Theatre，Rongqiao Center, Fuzhou, China, 2021
Zhang Yatao’s paintings explore the dynamic relationship between fiction and reality, constructing a distinctive visual language in which everyday imagery—such as animals, figures, and memories of childhood—is transformed into poetic and symbolic narratives. Moving between China, Northern Europe, and Southeast Asia, he draws on cross-cultural life experiences while deliberately distancing his subjects from literal representation. In doing so,he creates fictional worlds governed by their own internal logic. In his work, fantasy is not an escape from reality but a way of rethinking and reinterpreting it.
As both an artist and a curator, Zhang’s professional practice within different cultural contexts has shaped a fluid understanding of what constitutes “reality.” His paintings blur the boundary between the real and the imagined, challenging habitual modes of perception and opening alternative ways of understanding both past and present. Through humor, symbolic figures, and dreamlike scenes, his works invite viewers to reconsider the conventions that structure everyday experience and to engage imaginatively with what reality might become.
On a methodological level, Zhang does not treat painting as a tool for reproducing reality, but rather as a cognitive mechanism for constructing it. Through the simplification, displacement, and recombination of images, familiar objects are rendered strange, encouraging viewers to step outside the inertia of everyday interpretation. Within these fictional structures, reality is reorganized: time, memory, and cultural experience intertwine to form a non-linear narrative
space, in which painting becomes a medium linking individual experience with broader social and cultural contexts.
《Rainbow Bridge 》, oil painting，60x80cm，2026
