On Set | Artist: Yanmeng Zhang

 

In the exhibition On Set, artist Zhang Yanmeng combines digital technology with delicate painting techniques to create visual scenes that hover between reality and illusion. Her works resemble carefully staged fragments of a set—both figurative and surreal—inviting viewers into an interplay of emotion and perception.

  

Born in 1991 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, Zhang Yanmeng graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and earned a Master’s degree in Contemporary Art Practice from the Geneva University of Art and Design. She currently teaches at the Shanghai campus of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In recent years, her work has been featured in significant exhibitions and art platforms both domestically and internationally, including the CAFA Art Museum, Nanke Gallery, 798 Art Zone, Sense Gallery, ERG Gallery (Belgium), and Paris Art Center. She was also shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize (China). Her practice has garnered sustained attention in the international art scene, and she is regarded as one of the representative young Chinese artists exploring the intersection of digital media and painting.

 

 

Installation view of On Set, August 2, 2025 - Sept 14, 2025, Nan Ke Gallery, Shanghai ©  Courtesy of Nan Ke Gallery,   Photographed by Runxin.

 

Zhang Yanmeng’s practice explores the relationships between image, material, and emotion. Using digital technology, she creates connections between reality and illusion, which she then translates into dreamlike images through meticulous painting techniques. Her works not only present a sense of visual strangeness but also probe the alienation of emotions and interpersonal relationships. In a contemporary society dominated by technological thinking and techno-centrism, she intertwines figuration and abstraction to critically reflect on the emotional shifts and losses amid the materialization process.

 

80h x 120w cm

© Courtesy of the artist

 

The exhibited work Volcano and Lovers draws on the emotional intensity of Susan Sontag’s novel The Volcano Lovers, intertwining latent, passionate energy with the delicate vulnerability of intimate relationships. By merging the cool precision of digital imagery with the warmth of painterly strokes, the work creates a tension between reason and emotion, reality and illusion: emotions surge beneath a calm surface, and intimacy erupts in frozen moments, inviting viewers to experience both the intensity of passion and the subtlety of psychological nuance.

 

30h x 40w cm

© Courtesy of the artist

 

30h x 40w cm

© Courtesy of the artist

 

In On Set, Zhang’s canvases resemble scenes from an unfinished film—figures and settings hover between stillness and motion, appearing both like temporary stage props and fleeting fragments of real-life perception. She harmonizes the coolness of digital imagery with the warmth of painterly strokes, generating a visual tension between technological generation and handcrafted recreation. This “set” functions not only as a site of viewing but also as a space where emotions and consciousness are reconfigured, allowing viewers to experience the permeation of reality and illusion.