Painter, butcher, banker: Zhao Gang unmasks the identity of a post-global gentleman
Zhao Gang, Wittgenstein and Russell in Hudson, 2025. Oil on canvas, 120 x 150 x 4.5 cm. 47 1/4 x 59 x 1 3/4 in.
SHANGHAI.—
Zhao Gang’s second solo presentation with Lisson Gallery The Basterd Gentry, curated by independent curator Evonne Jiawei Yuan, extends his ongoing depiction of landscape, portraiture and still life into an elaborate, performative triad. Coinciding with Shanghai’s art season, the project is structured as an ongoing enactment of exhibitions and conversations across multiple locations in Shanghai, including ASE Foundation.
The Basterd Gentry stands as Zhao’s most autobiographical project to date, rooted in the complex negotiation of self-positioning and identity formation over the past four decades—a period during which he has built parallel careers in art and finance across Beijing and New York. Situated at the intersection of reality, representation, and projection, the project interrogates the three roles Zhao embodies—the painter, the butcher, and the banker—within a post-global, multipolar framework, foregrounding the dialectical tensions and entanglements among them. Staged across three symbolically resonant venues, The Basterd Gentry reveals how Zhao, cloaked in the guise of a ‘gentleman,’ conducts an unflinching examination of identity construction, power dynamics, and the very nature of existence from a deliberately detached standpoint.
Act One: Shadow | Lisson Gallery Shanghai | 12 November 2025 – Spring 2026
The first act, ‘Shadow,’ is presented at Lisson Shanghai, housed within the former Central Bank Warehouse Building—a site emblematic of East–West confluence that resonates with the cross-cultural perspective central to Zhao’s practice. The eight new works, all created in 2025, exemplify a deconstructive and defamiliarizing approach through which the artist reconfigures portraiture—often rendered as expressionless, signification-void silhouettes, sublime landscapes, and their underlying archetypes. These social-realist compositions are marked by romanticised, imagined topographies and spontaneous brushwork, informed by what may be termed Zhao’s retrospective capitalist consciousness. Beneath a veneer of genteel refinement lies a profound skepticism toward belonging and alienation. Here, painting moves beyond formal self-reference to become a generative site where subjectivity dissolves into a state of ‘non-self’—an act of othering that turns inward, gesturing toward a void of fixed meaning or destination.
Act Two: Flesh | ASE Foundation | 9 November 2025 – 27 March 2026
The second act, ‘Flesh,’ on display at the ASE Foundation, occupies a viewing room in a space located in the former French Concession, a neighborhood imbued with historical resonance. Zhao’s monumental ‘meatscapes’ function as visceral tableaux vivants. Adopting the persona of the ‘butcher’—a figure channeling a Tarantinoesque ethos in which violence serves as brutal rationality and revenge becomes a dark ritual—the artist reconceives the canvas as an abattoir and the brush as a scalpel. This dissective methodology enacts what might be called a ‘gastronomic critique’: flesh, positioned at the crossroads of the memento mori tradition and biopolitical discourse, becomes a medium through which systems of exploitation are laid bare. Much like Tarantino’s revisionist histories, which rework trauma through cinematic catharsis, Zhao’s work stages a parallel intervention—bodies are systematised, disciplined, ‘seasoned’ for consumption, and ultimately resurrected as forensic evidence.
Zhao Gang delves into the fluidity of individual identities, the clash of cultures, and the intricate interplay of fragmented historical events. His works are deeply rooted in a rich and nuanced cultural heritage, drawing inspiration from both classical and contemporary, Western and Chinese influences. Within his work, patterns and concepts gracefully unfurl, expertly deconstructing visual narratives. At the age of 18, Zhao Gang became the youngest member to join the avant-garde artist group known as the ‘Star Group’, heralding the onset of the modern art movement in China. Driven by a pursuit of artistic freedom, they laid the foundational stones of
contemporary Chinese art. Zhao Gang’s artistic style is characterized by audacious and almost exaggerated narrative techniques and brushwork. These elements serve not only as a perpetual reaffirmation of his own existence but also as a defiant stance against the prevailing trend of artistic refinement. His works celebrate the unfettered freedom and authenticity inherent in painting. His experience of studying abroad and living overseas since 1983 has given his works a diverse style with distinctive international characteristics. Upon returning to Beijing in around 2006, Zhao Gang redirected his focus to the intricate interplay between his unique cross-cultural experiences and the annals of Chinese history. Born in this land, yet traversing the path of a new immigrant, he grapples with the sentiment of estrangement that threads through his art.
Born in Beijing in 1961, Zhao Gang currently works and lives in New York and Beijing. He attended the Maastricht Institute of Arts (formerly Stadsacademie voor Toegepaste Kunsten) in The Netherlands (1983), and Vassar College, New York (1984-1987). He obtained a Master of Arts degree from Bard College, New York in 1999. Zhao Gang has held solo exhibitions at various institutions, including TAG Art Museum, Qingdao, China (2025); D+ Museum, Shenzhen, China; Long Museum (Chongqing Branch), Chongqing, China (2022); Long Museum (West Bund Branch), Shanghai, China (2021); Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei (2020); Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL, USA (2019); Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, Chile (2016); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2015); Suzhou Museum, Suzhou, China (2015); Today Art Museum, Beijing, China (2011); Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, China (2008); and He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China (2006), among others. His works have also been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA (2017); Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, China (2015); OCAT Contemporary Art Terminal (Xi'an Branch), Xi'an, China (2014); Guangzhou Triennial, China (2008); Performa Biennial, New York, NY, USA (2007); and Yokohama Triennale, Japan (2005).
