Biography
San Francisco based artist Michael Zheng was born and grew up in China. He studied Computer Science at Tsinghua University and worked as a computer software designer for ten years. Later he quit his job to attend the San Francisco Art Institute, where he studied with Paul Kos, Tony Labat and John Roloff. His work is conceptually based and often takes the form of situational intervention, sculpture or performance. He often creates situations that challenge the established positions so that a new perspective becomes possible. His recent projects have taken on various forms of social intervention for which he considers himself as a medium, or an enabler for certain experiences and perspectives.
Michael has exhibited his work worldwide. His main exhibitions include:
Vancouver Biennale (2009-2011) in Canada; The Profession, Marina Abramovic Institute, San Francisco (2010); Chirstmas Palm at the Freies Museum in Berlin, Germany (2009); Broken Lines at Anna Klinkhammer Gallery in Düsseldorf, Germany (2010); 55 Days of Chinese Art
in Valencia at The Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Spain; an
intervention project with the 9th Baltic Triennial of International
Art at the ICA in London and the CAC in Vilnius, Lithuania; Portland
Museum of Art Biennial in Maine, USA; the ERNST Museum in Budapest,
Hungary; Multiple Realities at the F2 Gallery in Beijing, China;
We Remember the Sun at Walter and McBean Galleries of San Francisco
Art Institute; Künstfilmtag, Künstlerverein Malkasten, Düsseldorf,
Germany; Vierwände Kunst, Düsseldorf, Germany; Reincarnation,
at the University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada; Emerge 2006,
GenArt, San Francisco; As the Butterfly Said to Chuang Tzu, MISSION
17, San Francisco; Close Calls, Headland Center for the Arts, San
Francisco; CREAM from the Top, Arts Benicia, USA; MAGMA,
Tenerife, Spain; San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, USA; Berkeley Art
Center, USA; Southern Exposure, San Francisco; and INPORT: International
Video-Performance Festival, Tallinn, Estonia. His debut solo in San
Francisco, As the Butterfly Said to Chuang Tzu, won critical acclaim.
He received artist residencies from the prestigious MacDowell Colony in
New Hampshire in 2005 and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
in Maine in 2003. In 2005 and 2007 he was nominated for the SECA Award from
the San Francisco MOMA. He was acknowledged by the Artadia award in 2007; nominated for the Bay Area Now 5 of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2008. His intervention project with the Baltic Triennial
was selected as No.2 of the best art shows by the Pravda magazine in Lithuania,
2006 (No.1 was the Lithuanian entry to the Venice Biennale that year.)
His work have been reviewed in Sculpture Magazine, Yishu, Artweek, Shotgun Review,
San Francisco Chronicle, SF Weekly, Portland Phoenix, the NRZ and Rheinische
Post in Germany, Lietuvos Zinios and Lietuvos Rytas in Lithuania, and the
Artists Magazine in Taiwan, among others.