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Ontology
Sept 26 – Oct 21, 2026
Cedar Ridge Gallery, Scarborough
In this solo exhibition, Zhan Zhang creates hypothetical paper-based life forms and biotic communities to explore the delicate interplay between visibility, memory and cultural identity. The concept “Ontology” used as exhibition title is a study of being that examines what types of entities exist, how they can be grouped into categories, and relate to one another.
Existence is not static; it is constantly intertwined with absence, memory, and what has not yet dissipated. Zhang is fascinated by creating things that people were never meant to see—or that were never meant to exist. These visually organic and hollow objects are neither specimens nor memorials, but rather attempts to embody a “presence through absence” inside the forms and structures.
Each individual work shares elements derived from the same raw material, much like sharing a genome, lived experience and memory. The use of delicate, hand-cut paper and fabrics as a medium offers a corresponding visual experience throughout the exhibition. When every tiny object—seemingly pale and unremarkable at first glance—coalesces into a galaxy, the absence is no longer emptiness, but becomes a powerful sense of presence.
11059 Cuts
August 26, 2026 – February 6, 2027
Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery, Sarnia
The installation consist of a wall installation part of paper "feathers" and a background video of enlarged paper cuts moving in slow motion as if waves or clouds. Being able to see both the distant panorama and the nearby details at the same time creates a sense of unreality in the mind. Each cut is a second of life, visitors are invited to sit in front of the work and perceive passing of time.
Influenced by the ancient tradition of Chinese paper cutting (jianzhi) as well as contemporary and surrealist aesthetics, Zhang has developed a method she describes as “drawing” with scissors, which reduces paper cutting to its most elemental gesture: the cut itself. Traditionally associated with women’s domestic labour and folk culture, Chinese paper cutting was often excluded from dominant art historical narratives that privileged painting and calligraphy. By translating these inherited techniques into contemporary installation and sculptural practices, Zhang challenges longstanding hierarchies between craft and fine art while reaffirming paper cutting’s cultural significance within contemporary art.
Zhang’s works resist the sensory overload of modern life by foregrounding slowness and the act of making. The repetitive process of freehand paper cutting becomes a record of time, memory, and the artist’s connection to her materials—each cut marking a second of the artist’s life. Rooted in childhood memories of making paper window decorations in Northeastern China, Zhang’s practice combines personal memory, cultural history, and contemporary artistic experimentation to demonstrate how paper continues to inspire new forms of artistic expression.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
May 25- June 8, 2025
L.L. Contemporary Gallery, Richmond Hill
L.L. Contemporary is pleased to present Out of Sight, Out of Mind, a solo exhibition by Zhan Zhang, whose work explores the delicate interplay between visibility, memory, and cultural identity through the evocative medium of paper. Using scissors to “draw” lines, through intricate sculptural techniques, Zhang investigates what we choose to perceive and thus remember, and what we allow to be unseen and forgotten. In a time when cultural narratives are often rewritten or erased, these sculptures stand as tactile symbols to hidden stories and silenced voices.
The exhibition features the artist’s works from the past two years, including installations, soft sculptures, and video. Visually innovative and enjoyable, the loose works can be freely reorganized, offering endless possibilities. Though in futuristic sculptural forms, each piece carries a backstory rooted in Zhang’s lived experience and heritage. Some works are inspired by childhood memories, while others respond to broader issues such as migration, displacement, and identity. Zhang’s meticulous approach results in personalized works that are simultaneously airy and architectural, ephemeral and enduring.
The title Out of Sight, Out of Mind reflects a central theme in Zhang’s practice: the fragility of remembrance and perception in both physical and conceptual contexts. Do meanings cease to exist when not seen or heard again and again? Are humans truly wired to perceive reality correctly? Will the body remember those without the brain’s interference? Could something exist, but humans don’t realize it is there simply because they don’t have the corresponding organs of perception?
This exhibition invites audiences to slow down and look more closely, to perceive and to forget, and to reconsider what lies beyond the surface, reminding us that what is out of sight may not always be out of mind.
Polycoria
Sept 12-30, 2024
At IDFK Art Space, Toronto
Expression or emotion showing in one's eyes that constantly alters, resembling the phases of the moon. Through installation, video and paper-based works, the Polycoria Series explores the multiple facets of one's identity that shift when situated in different viewpoints. The moon has its ups and downs, everything is fine yet uncertain in its time.
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