1981    Born in Baoji, Shannxi Province.

2005    Graduated from Oil Painting Department, Xi’An Academy of Fine Arts with a B.A.

He now works and lives in Beijing.

Having spent most of his childhood in the mountains, Zhang Yingnan is calm, restrained and composed as the still sea, just like his paintings. Everything in the picture is real: a sea, a building, a tree, a room… but under careful arrangements, those familiar environments exudes a sense of alienation. They seem to be close yet far away, like waking up to a lucid dream in which you clearly “experienced”. Zhang Yingnan paints memory particular to a space. “Memory does not exist on its own, anything that happened revolves around specific locations, classroom, bedroom, living room… space is a vessel that holds my memories.”

Zhang Yingnan’s brushwork is exquisite and delicate, his color is not conspicuous, and his emotion is calm. The artist did not have the impulse to reveal his heart in his works. Instead, he buried all the complex emotions deliberately in the plain narration and could only feel cold, lonesome and melancholy. The color dark blue can be spotted in many of his works, from small objects such as gloves and boxes, to extensive blue backgrounds. Zhang Yingnan said that blue represents himself and is a way for him to intervene his art.