Embedding passing glimpses of figuration within expressive, gestural abstraction, Tianyue Zhong (b. 1994; Chengdu, China) examines the transient nature of memory. Channeling the echoed phrasing and subtly shifting layers of minimal music alongside a host of painterly and cultural influences, Zhong investigates the formation of memory—both personal and collective—and the inevitable alteration of such memories in the face of time and continuous recall.
Zhong works from photographic source material—namely intuitive, hand-made collages the artist creates from photographs taken in Chengdu, her home city. Raised in one of the most populous cities in China, Zhong is accustomed to the flurry of bodies that often characterize urban spaces. With her photographs—and subsequent collages—she steps back from the throng, capturing anonymous figures, their backs to the camera, faces turned down, features obscured by hats or umbrellas. Carefully removing the figures from their original surroundings with a pair of scissors, Zhong splices them with fragments of textures and scenery trimmed from other photographs.
On canvas, Zhong distills these hybrid, sensorial memories in vibrant color palettes and expressive gestures. Hints of individual figures—drawn from the artist’s photocollage source material—emerge from Zhong’s fluid, dynamic brushwork, a single figure coming into focus amidst the endless stream of bodies in the anonymous city. Drawing on the histories of photography and abstraction alongside the Chinese concept of complementary forces, Zhong reduces the rich narratives of her memory-infused collages to their very essence, allowing memories to unfold endlessly, reflecting on the interplay of presence and absence across time and place.
Zhong’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Loyal, Stockholm; LBF Contemporary, London; MOU PROJECTS, Hong Kong; and Long Story Short, New York. Zhong’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Artistic Museum of Contemporary Art, Cardiff, Wales and the New Century Art Foundation (NCAF), Shanghai. In 2025, she completed the La Bastide de Laurence Residency Programme in Provence, France. The artist earned a BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA at the Royal College of Art in London. She lives and works in Los Angeles.