| Artists |  | Michael Zheng |
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A Deity, A Demon, And A Teacher
2014
Intervention Performance at Berkeley Art Museum
Every Wednesday from 11am-5pm, 4/9/2014 - 9/10/2014
Bend
2011Gicleé Print
63x94cm (37”x25”)
Edition of 5
63x94cm (37”x25”)
Edition of 5
Part of the performance “Fitting In” at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco/USA
The artist quietly but persistently tried to fit his body into the nooks and crannies of the space. The piece is an intervention both to the oddly shaped space and the event “Performing Politics” itself.
The artist quietly but persistently tried to fit his body into the nooks and crannies of the space. The piece is an intervention both to the oddly shaped space and the event “Performing Politics” itself.
UTOPIA
2011
Installation with sanded down book „Utopia“ by Thomas Moore
and table, dust from the book sanding
Sculpture (Paper) 2,5 x 5 x 6,4 cm
Table (Wood) 82 x 204 x 90 cm
Blocking Press
2010Gicleé Print
50x68cm (27”x20”)
Edition of 5
This piece was partly paying homage to Robert Rauschenberg’s “Erased DeKooning” piece; and partly critiquing what constitutes an art experience especially in the context of an art institution. From the time the museum opened at 11am till the time it closed at 5:45pm on December 3, 2010, the artist stood in front of a famous art work in San Francisco MoMA, only inches away from the work, effectively blocking the piece from being viewed for one day.
This piece was partly paying homage to Robert Rauschenberg’s “Erased DeKooning” piece; and partly critiquing what constitutes an art experience especially in the context of an art institution. From the time the museum opened at 11am till the time it closed at 5:45pm on December 3, 2010, the artist stood in front of a famous art work in San Francisco MoMA, only inches away from the work, effectively blocking the piece from being viewed for one day.
Center of Europe
2004/2011
Giclee print
48,3 x 33 cm
Video, 1:45 min, Loop
More than one geographical center of Europe has been declared in different countries, most notably in Lithuania, Ukraine and Slovakia. Several monuments had been dedicated to each of these locations.
On July 27, 2004, the artist made a performance at the Geographical Center of Europe in Lithuania. Standing between the two official monuments that mark the Center(s) of Europe, he whistled out the phrase “CENTER OF EUROPE” repetitively in Morse Code. After each iteration, he turned slightly to the left and repeated the whistling. The performance took place at 9:00 and concluded at 18:00.
As part of the piece, this event was broadcast on the Lithuanian National Public TV Nightly news, as shown in the TV monitor.
The air between me and Marcin at whiteconcepts
2010installation view
based on a performance during the exhibition "The artist and the forty thieves"
Enlightenment Guaranteed
2002 - 2007clay, styrafoam, jeans, shoes, paint, plywood
40,6x71x155 cm (16"x28"x61")
platform size variable
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 a certain experiences and perspectives. Michael has been often awarded and has exhibited his work worldwide.
Education and experience
Awards and honours
Selected solo exhibitions and performances
Selected group exhibitions
Projects and public performances
Other activities
Juror, Diego Rivera Gallery year round submission, San Francisco Art Institute, 2010
Education and experience
| 2003 | Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine/USA |
| 1999-2005 | San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco/USA (BFA, Sculpture; MFA, New Genres) |
| 1989-1999 | Computer Software Designer, Silicon Valley/USA |
| 1989 | Master of Science, Marquette University, Wisconsin/USA |
| 1987 | Bachelor of Science, Tshinghua University/CN |
Awards and honours
| 2012 | Nomitated for SECA Award, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA/USA |
| 2010 | Emergency Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York/USA Nominated for the Eureka Fellowship, Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco/USA |
| 2007 | Artist Residency, Ateliers Hoeherweg e. V., Duesseldorf/DE Nominated for the SECA Award, SFMOMA, San Francisco/USA Finalist for Artadia Award, San Francisco/USA |
| 2006 | Art for Sale! selected as No. 2 of the 10 Best Art Shows of 2005 by the Pravda Magazine/LIT |
| 2005 | Nominated for the SECA Award, SFMOMA, San Francisco/USA Fellowship, Artists Residency at MacDowell Colony/USA Graduated from SFAI with Honor |
| 2004 | MFA Merit Scholarship, San Francisco Art Institute/USA Murphy Fellowship for the Fine Arts, San Francisco Foundation/USA Fellowship, Artists Residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture/USA |
Selected solo exhibitions and performances
| 2016 | The Increasing Presence of Presence in Contemporary Art, performance and lecture, University of Cologne/DE |
| 2014 | What Do You See With Your Eyes Closed?, intervention performance, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA/USA |
| 2013 | Shadow of dust, when the sun blooms, WiE Kultur, Berlin/DE |
| 2012 | Medication / Mediation, with Daniel Rothbart, Stattberlin/DE |
| 2011 | DOUBLE SCREENS, Gallery WiE Kultur, Berlin/DE I LOOK TO THE SKY AND MISS THE CEILING, WHITECONCEPTS, Berlin/DE Performing Politics, performance, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco/USA Making Out, performance in collaboration with Nicole McClure, SFMOMA, San Francisco/USA |
| 2010 | artwork inside, The Profession, Marina Abramovic Institute West, San Francisco/USA |
| 2006 | As the Butterfly Said to Chuang Tzu, MISSION 17, San Francisco/USA From Lithuania, Artists Television Access, San Francisco/USA |
| 2005 | Officially Unofficial: Art from the Baltic Triennial for Sale!, ARTima Gallery, Vilnius/LIT Art for Sale!, 9th Baltic Triennial of International Art, ICA, London/GB |
Selected group exhibitions
| 2016 | Hidden Views, Markthaus, Offenbach am Main/DE |
| 2015 | RCA Secret, Royal College of Art, London/GB RADICAL MEDICINE BEGINS WITH A PURGE AND IS SUSTAINED BY LOVE, Walking Meditation, Krowswork,CA/USA |
| 2013 | Shamanic Soul Constellations, Dissident Future Arts and Ideas Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco/USA All Good Things, SOMArts, San Francisco/USA THE LONG CONVERSATION, Southern Exposure, San Francisco/USA ENDE, Kunstverein Schwerin/DE Daddy YOU can´t make a cactus... this has been done., Grimmuseum, Berlin/DE |
| 2012 | imPOSSIBLE?, Culture Centre Kühlhaus, Berlin/DE Inward Gazes - Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art, Macao Museum of Art, Macao/CN The Artist is Elsewhere, Zero1 Biennial, Performance Art Institute, San Francisco/USA Positioning Osmotic Impulses, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin/DE I Am Crime: Art on the edge of law, SOMArts, San Francisco/USA Uncanny Home, Corridor, Reykjavík/IC Skowhegan Alumni Exhibitions, 92YTRIBECA, New York/USA The universe is built on a plan, SAVVY Contemporary in cooperation with WHITECONCEPTS, Berlin/DE |
| 2011 | IN YOU IS THE ILLUSION OF EACH DAY, Gallery LATITUDE 28, New Delhi/IND Conceptualizing the Body: Gaze, Masquerade, and Spectacle, Amelie A Wallace Gallery, New York/USA Keeping an Eye on Surveillance, The Performance Art Institute, San Francisco/USA The End of the Dream, MicaMoca & WHITECONCEPTS, Berlin/DE NOMADIC SETTLERS – SETTLED NOMADS, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin/DE The End of Failure, Louis V E.S.P, New York/USA |
| 2010 | The Distance Between You And Me, Worksound Gallery, Portland/USA The artist and the 40 thieves, Gallery Absence of Art, Berlin/DE Broken Lines, Gallery Anna Klinkhammer, Duesseldorf/DE Moves10: Framing Motion, The Bluecoat, Liverpool/UK You see, I paint, Program Gallery, Warsaw/PL |
| 2009 | Vancouver Sculpture Biennal, Vancouver/CA Christmas Palm, Freies Museum, Berlin/DE imPOSSIBLE!, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and MISSION 17, San Francisco/USA error:%/?/art, Warszawa Gallery and Galeria Beznadziejna, Warsaw/PL The whole place is dark and we see, Wroclaw/PL Cou-Huo, Beijing/CN Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art, Macao Art Museum, Macao/CN |
| 2008 | We Remember the Sun, Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute Multiple Realities, F2 Gallery, Beijing/CN 55 Days of Chinese Art in Valencia, The Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia/ES |
| 2007 | Kunstfilmtag, Kuenstlerverein Malkasten, Duesseldorf/DE Reincarnation, Doris McCarthy Gallery/University of Toronto Scarborough/CA 4 Walls Art Festival, Duesseldorf/DE East-West Project, Espace 72, Dison, Verviers/BE |
| 2006 | Emerge 2006, GenArt, San Francisco/USA APAture, Kearny Street, San Francisco/USA Close Calls, Headland Center for the Arts, Sausalito/USA |
| 2005 | ISA Black Market Auction, Independent School of Art, San Francisco/USA ERNST Museum, Budapest/HU Portland Museum of Art Biennial, Portland/USA CREAM from the Top, Arts Benicia, Benicia/USA San Francisco Art Institute MFA Show, San Francisco/USA |
| 2004 | MAGMA, Tenerife/ES Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship Exhibition, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco/USA 21st National Juried Exhibition, Berkeley Art Center, Jocobson/USA Monumental, Southern Exposure, San Francisco/USA Topographies, with the San Francisco Bureau of Urban Secrets, Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute/USA |
| 2003 | INPORT: International Video-Performance Festival, Tallinn/EST One Minute Film/Video Festival, Toronto/CA Which Way Out?, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco/USA |
| 2002 | Enlightenment Guaranteed, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco/USA |
Projects and public performances
| 2011 | Intervention performance, SFMoMA, San Francisco/USA |
| 2010 | LiVE WORK, continual curatorial project, San Francisco/USA |
| 2009 | Artist for Hire, continual performance project, sites variable Auction Painting, part of the Christmas Palm, Freies Museum, Berlin/DE |
| 2008 | Crosscut – Humane slaughter act performance festival, SlaughterHouseSpace, Healdsburg/USA The Source, part of the 100 Performances for the Hole, The Garage, San Francisco/USA |
| 2007 | Play with Food, public performance at the Ateliers Höherweg e.V., Duesseldorf/DE |
| 2006 | Four on One – Curators Create, Artist Curates, four curators each curates Stephanie Syjuco, The Garage Biennale, San Francisco /USA |
| 2004 | “How to go from here…”, Balatonfured/HU Center of Europe, performed at the Geographical Center of Europe, Vilnius/LIT |
| 2003 | Stare, performed at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine/USA |
Public collections
Macao Art Museum, USA
Other activities
Juror, Diego Rivera Gallery year round submission, San Francisco Art Institute, 2010
Guest lecturer, CCA, San Francisco, 2010
Juror, ANTI/SOCIAL, MISSION 17´s Third Annual Juried Exhibition, with Clark Buckner, Cheryl Meeker, and Elaine Santos, 2006
Panelist, “China´s Next Generation”, with Orville Schell (Dean of School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley) et al, moderated by Scott Shafer, Commonwealth Club, broadcast on NPR on September 23, San Francisco, 2005
Guest lecturer, San Francisco Art Institute, 2005
Juror, ANTI/SOCIAL, MISSION 17´s Third Annual Juried Exhibition, with Clark Buckner, Cheryl Meeker, and Elaine Santos, 2006
Panelist, “China´s Next Generation”, with Orville Schell (Dean of School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley) et al, moderated by Scott Shafer, Commonwealth Club, broadcast on NPR on September 23, San Francisco, 2005
Guest lecturer, San Francisco Art Institute, 2005
The universe is built on a plan
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