Biography
Zyia Zhang is a video and installation artist currently living in New York. She is interested in using light and sound to express divergent human perception of the space. Zhang has always been fascinated with fantastical scenes from the history of moving images. These man-made spectacles help lead the viewer into an imaginary world. As an installation artist, Zhang’s installations create an immersive environment that draws the viewer into such a world. By using various types of LED lights and brightly colored plastics, she is able to immerse the audience in a surreal space, where they are enveloped in her invented world. Her vivid imagination also manifests itself as abstract video art that sometimes accompanies her installations.
The installation that Zhang is currently working on is called Drifting in Light. This installation takes the form of an oversized tropical aquarium, filled with light instead of water and abstract gleaming neon acrylic geometric shapes moving around instead of fish. Both the light and the acrylic pieces are kinetic and constantly shifting as time goes by, creating a limitless number of varying moods and compositions.
Zhang received a BFA in Computer Art from Fine Art College at Shanghai University in 2010, majoring in video, installation and new media arts. During her undergraduate studies, Zhang was also a timpani player in the Shanghai University Students Wind Band and Orchestra for four years. She has also worked as a graphic designer, photographer and video editor in Shanghai and received awards from both the Shanghai International Design Exhibition and Liu Haisu Art Museum.
In 2013, Zhang received an MFA in Computer Art from the School of Visual Arts. She has exhibited her work internationally, mostly in her native Shanghai and New York.
