Zhang Ning was born in 1983 in Linyi, Shandong. He graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Fine Arts College at Shanghai Normal University in 2005 and now lives and works in Shanghai.
As a distinctive representative among Chinese sculptors born in the 1980s, Zhang Ning focuses on experimentation and practice within the sculptural language itself. Using sculpture as a medium, he infuses it with the perceptions and insights of life. In recent years, his new works have continued to demonstrate breakthroughs in sculptural language, spatial expression, and the use of new materials, expanding the context of traditional sculpture. His works convey a strong sense of “growth” and an upward, life-affirming energy. The forms and spatial gestures resemble the flourishing of all things—vigorous, dynamic, and filled with explosive energy from within—resonating with the rhythm of life. Zhang Ning’s creations consistently explore poetic and symbolic themes, reflecting a deep engagement with Eastern aesthetics and Buddhist philosophy. His works, simple yet rich, present a calm, restrained, and ethereal quality, like a film without narration but filled with intentional blank spaces. They gently touch the viewer’s inner world, carrying abundant imagination, connecting past and present, the fleeting and the eternal.
His solo exhibitions include: Ephemera and Echo, Leo Gallery, Shanghai, China(2025); Grow, Meibo Art Museum, Shanghai, China(2023); The One Project, New Bridge Gallery, Shanghai, China(2019); Golden Journey, Leo Gallery, Shanghai, China(2015); Zhang Ning's Sculpture, Leo Gallery, Shanghai, China(2012); Home, Leo Gallery, Shanghai, China(2010) and Stone Youth, Pifo Gallery, Beijing, China(2008).