Zhu Jinshi's monumental Wave of Materials installation will be exhibited as part of The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China, an exhibition curated by art historian and critic Wu Hung that examines contemporary Chinese art through the lens of materiality. Constructed from rice paper, bamboo, cotton threads, and stone weights, Zhu's Wave of Materials extends from his practice of installation while living in Berlin in the 1980s, a highly formative and experimental period for the artist. Here, Zhu takes a new approach to rice paper, a medium essential to the tradition of Chinese ink painting, and draws from its latent textural qualities and weightlessness to form a towering wave. Uniquely reassembled for this exhibition, this rendition of Wave of Materials runs nearly 60 feet long, 12 feet wide and 20 feet tall.
Wave of Materials will premiere at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from March 16-September 15, 2019, while the exhibition will run from June 2, 2019-January 5, 2020 and subsequently travel to the Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL from February 4-May 3, 2020; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA from June 25-August 14, 2020; and Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA from November 14, 2020-February 21, 2021.
Zhu completed the Artists-in-Berlin Residency Program with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD); an Architecture Department lectureship at Technical University of Berlin, Germany; and an artist residency at the Banff Center, Alberta, Canada. He has had major solo exhibitions at the Yuan Art Museum, Beijing, China (2016); Inside-Out Museum, Beijing, China (2015); Prague City Museum, Prague, Czech Republic (2002); and the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (1997). Zhu's works has also been included in numerous milestone group exhibitions including 28 Chinese, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA (2015) and Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL (2013); Alone Together, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL (2012); Mind Space: Minimalism in Contrasts, University of Pittsburgh, PA (2011); and the 1st Guangzhou Triennial Exhibition, Guangzhou, China (2002). His work is represented in public collections worldwide including Busan Museum of Art, Busan, South Korea; Deutsch Bank Collection, Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, Germany; Minsheng Art Museum, Minsheng, China; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea; Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL; Saarbruecken City Gallery, Saarland, Germany; Today Art Museum, Beijing, China; Wall Museum, Beijing, China; White Rabbit Collection, Australia; and Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada. Zhu currently lives and works in Beijing, China.