Yibei Zhang (b.1992, born in Heilongjiang, China) lives and works in Beijing. Graduated from Royal College of Art MA Fine Art (Sculpture) 2017 and University of Arts London, Wimbledon College of Arts - BA Fine Art (Sculpture) 2015. Yibei was the recipient of the 2024 UCCA Young Associates' Choice Award, the Tomorrow Sculpture Awards in 2019, and a finalist for the Huayu Youth Award in 2021. She is also the recipient of Longlati Foundation's Artist-in-Residence Program for the 2022-23 cycle. Her recent exhibitions include: solo exhibition "Please No Helmet" (Longlati, Shanghai, 2024); solo exhibition "A Vase In Everything"(BANK, Shanghai, 2021); Duo-solo show "Sophia"(Galleryweekened Beijing, 2023); 2024 Jing'an International Sculpture Project (Shanghai, 2024); X Museum Triennial "Home ls Where the Haunt ls" (X Museum, Bejing, 2023); "The 2nd TAG-New Contemporary: Seaward"(TAG Art Museum, Qingdao, 2023),"Bodily Reaction: Vitalizing The Bare Life"(Taikang Space, Beijing, 2023),"The Disconnect Generation"(Song Art Museum, Beijing, 2022), "Wisdom of Everydau Life-Contemporary Art Invitation Exhibition"(Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan, Yinchuan, 2021), "The 4th Today's Documents "(Today Art Museum, Beijing, China, 2019), "Whatever Works, Whatever It Takes"( Goethe Institut, Beijing, China, 2019), etc. Her artworks have been collected by important insitituions, including M+ in Hong Kong, Song Art Museum, Longlati Foundation, Beiqiu Art Museum, Tanoto Art Foundation.
Yibei Zhang starts with a proposition, that is, a rethinking of the relationship between artist, material and ideation. In this rethinking, the artist and her materials form the entity world and the entity world frames the ideation world; ideation and material together compose the imagery of the artist and this imagery leads, chicken and egg-like, to the collaboration of artist and material. Material, artist and ideation are therefore fated to co-exist. What then is material and who is the artist? Where is ideation? We might deem that the artist picks her material, be it stone, silicon or things that exist in the world (found or sought objects), because she combines her materials as reference objects to her subconscious. This poses for Yibei the question of whether the material belongs to the artist or vice versa, i.e. relative to material, the artist is moved and relative to the artist, the material is moved.
