ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Ling Y. Zhang was born and raised in northern China. She grew up in an artistic family, where both her parents are retired art professors who used to teach Chinese traditional painting at LuXun Academy of Fine Art in ShenYang, China. Ling is a painter and a current Studio Artists at Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.

Due to the artistic influence from their family, in 1988, Ling received her MFA degree at Central Institute of Nationalities in Beijing, China. After the graduation, she had an exhibition at National Museum of Art of China. Her exhibition was very successful and drew the public attention.  The Chinese Culture News, CCTV, China News & People’s Daily reported and reviewed it. In the end of 1988, she was invited by Signet Fine Art, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and The Governor of the State of Illinois for the exhibition of The Selected Contemporary Oil Paintings From China. In the past 15 years, her work has been exhibited in many group and solo shows nationally and internationally, such as: 1994 ATLANTA BIENNIAL; Solo exhibition at CALLANWOLDE FINE ART CENTER; 1995 Chinese Artists Group Exhibition at The NATIONAL MUSEUM OF TAIWAN and EL INSTITUTO DE CULTURA DE BAJA CALIFORNIA, Mexico City, MEXICO; “The National Oil Painting Exhibition of 1993” at the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ART OF CHINA (where her selected work “Intricate Game” won the Third Award of Best Work); 1996; “ART IN ATLANTA” by Artists In Residence International at BERLIN, MUNICH, FRANKFORT and NEWCASTLE, UK, 2001; “Import/Export” National Juried Exhibition at WOMANMADE GALLERY, Chicago, 2002; "No Agenda, But Their Own: a decade of work by women artists" at AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE, Atlanta; “Two-Person Exhibition” at CITY EXHIBITION CENTER, La Croix Valmer, FRANCE; Solo Exhibition at ARTS & CULTURE CENTER DE VILANOVA, Barcelona, SPAIN; Brave Destiny/The Largest Show of Living Surrealist, Fantastic & Visionary Artists in the World; Two-Person Exhibition with her sister Bo Zhang at SYLVIA SCHMIDT GALLERY in New Orleans; and her work, Mask-Ix, Self Portrait won the awards of Merit at WILLIAMSBURG ART CENTER in NEW YORK 2003. In the past 15 years, her work has received numerous reviews by art critics and has been published by numerous leading art publications internationally.

During the past 18 years, Ling made numerous trips to Tibet, and she truly believes that the mysterious and surrealistic Tibetan Lama religion deeply influenced the artistic creation of her whole life. Conceptually, the principal focus of her work is the conflict between human instinct and lofty ideals, between fantasy and reality. Issues of spiritual transformation and personal experience are her constant themes.