AntonHaas
   Corporation  

Zhang Dali is a Chinese artist born in 1963 in Harbin who lives and works in Beijing. After completing his studies at the Academy of Art and Design, he travels to Italy where he discovers the art of graffiti. On his return, he is the only graffiti artist in Beijing. Today he is considered one of the pioneers of Chinese graffiti. Zhang Dali became famous for the 2,000 giant profiles of himself that he placed all over the Chinese capital between 1995 and 1998, alongside the painted characters by the city authorities to indicate a demolition. His graffiti are like a revolt against the demolition of old Beijing. In this series of profiles entitled Dialogue, Zhang Dali also works on the series Demolition : he removes the surface of the wall inside contour lines of his graffiti, showing what lies behind. One of the best known being Demolition-Cité forbidden (1998) which reveals the roofs of the Forbidden City, thus denouncing the contrast between the Eternal Palace and the demolition of the old town for the benefit of progress. Zhang Dali is the first to make a lasting artistic intervention in public space in China. He uses the pseudonyms AK-47, his figurative signatures can be seen as the graphic indoctrination of posters that urge Chinese citizens to behave better in daily life.

Subsequently, his installation Chinese Offspring of 100 human-sized resin sculptures representing immigrant workers in different postures continues his work of denouncing the way in which China is modernizing without care about its people. Suspended upside down, these works underline the lack of power of these immigrant workers, whose work has enabled the rapid modernization of cities, over their lives, and the harsh treatment inflicted on them by China. Bringing to light those who have lost in the face of historical upheavals is the main theme of Zhang Dali's work.

His photographic series, A Second History, combines retouched press photos with their originals at the time of the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Dali makes party comrades disappear of Mao Zedong who have fallen into disgrace and changes the backgrounds. He thus creates a new story for the victims.