symbiosis

Influenced by Chinese and European masters, Zhang Shujian focuses on the human face. But unlike traditional portraitists, his aim is not idealization; instead, he turns his gaze to what is often hidden or ignored—the awkward, the asymmetrical, the imperfect. The first encounter with a work by Zhang Shujian is often a turmoil, our eye finds itself confronted with imperfection, even ugliness. His portraits, sometimes bordering on the grotesque, depict not only real individuals but also imagined figures, each brought to life through meticulous detail and emotional depth. He gives pictorial space to the flaws in our faces, to the elements we consider awkward or deformed. His highly detailed works are a quest for hyperrealism and photorealism. Using pencil on paper or thin layers of oil paint he creates works that give imperfection a value as an expression of life and truth. His works often mix in the making references from real portraits by old masters with actual photographs shots taken form the Internet, or mixing Eastern and Western features, in images that might look familiar or repulsive by the fluidity of the stream of visual inputs we have in our daily, global and connected, routine.