Jared Zhang was born in Shenzhen, China, and then moved to Chengdu, where, as a child, Zhang’s mother fled with him from his mafia-involved father. As an adolescent, Zhang moved to Texas, where he oscillated between Texan suburban neighborhoods and Chinese inner cities. Zhang continued his education in California and the Netherlands, studying marketing and contextual design.

His practice encompasses diverse elements that range from painting and photography to sculpture and immersive installation. Within this, his largely biographical work wrestles with desire and contemporary spirituality.

A large portion of Zhang’s practice lies in his antagonistic relationship with consumerism - the ultimate impermanence of possession and vanity - and its social impact. A voice for the guys who wear dresses to the party but can dunk a basketball, Zhang’s work deconstructs the powers that perpetuate the alienation & anomie of modern life while also creating vessels for non-dual awareness.

Early works like de paire (2021), a rather phallic installation at the MoMA, *Ivy (2022),* and *Nothing (2022)* pose questions to current institutions from museums to classrooms, and signal toward commercial incentives even in these once neutral establishments. Mass (2022), a consumer sculpture, was designed to reflect the one-ness in current times.

As an artist, Zhang aims to alchemize his abstract upbringing and polymathic background to capture the nuanced complexities of finding peace while being a twenty-something living in modern America.