Alisan Atelier is delighted to present Wandering Mindscape, the debut Hong Kong solo exhibition of emerging contemporary artist Zhang Xiaoli, inaugurating the year-long celebration of Alisan Fine Arts’ 45th anniversary.

Featuring 19 recent works, the exhibition showcases Zhang’s meticulous fine painting technique (gongbi) in landscapes set within surreal and imagined spaces. Her compositions incorporate playful game-related motifs, including her well-known Lego and Box series, alongside references to chess, the Rubik’s Cube, and labyrinths. Together, her work reframes of the classical literati pursuit of “wandering in the mind,” echoing the gallery’s anniversary theme, “Then and Now”.  

In the classical tradition, such “wandering” describes an aesthetic practice in which the literati travelled through landscapes by way of painting rather than on foot, awakening an inner awareness through artistic conception and arriving at a sanctuary of the soul. As Zhang notes: “Through 'wandering,' I aspire to explore the connection between reality and illusion, and within it, discover emotions of playfulness and significance.”

Artistic Style

Zhang is celebrated for her gongbi technique in rendering imagined scenes. Her engagement with game elements began in the 2010s with the acclaimed Boxed Landscape series. Departing from the conventions of Chinese landscape painting, she substitutes traditional motifs such as trees, mountains, rocks, and figures with Lego bricks, and in doing so opens a contemporary dialogue with tradition. Within compact containers, she constructs surreal terrains that distilled personal memories and encounters into poetic visual narratives. In recent years, Zhang has drawn inspiration from Cabinets of Curiosities which originated from the 15th to the 18th centuries, and she interweaves ideas from astronomy, physics, physiology, molecular biology, mathematics, and metaphysics. This synthesis foregrounds intellect, poetry, and aesthetics in equal measure. Through these works, Zhang reframes the landscape genre for a contemporary context and offers glimpses of nature as it is experienced and reimagined by the modern mind.

Artist Biography

Zhang Xiaoli was born in 1989 in Guiyang, China. She received the Ms. Chu Lam Yiu Scholarship and moved to Hong Kong in 2008 to pursue higher education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she received her BA with first class honours in Fine Arts and Biology in 2014. During the graduation show, she received Y.S Hui Fine Arts Award and Wucius Wong Creative Ink Painting Award. She gained a master’s degree at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2021, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the same institution. In 2023 Zhang Xiaoli received the Liu Kuo-sung Ink Art Award. She currently lives and works in Niagara, Canada, where she has begun a year-long residency at the Niagara Falls Exchange (Niagara City Council).

Zhang has participated in more than 40 exhibitions worldwide, including New York, London, Paris, Brussels, Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Taipei, and Hong Kong. In 2023, she held a major solo exhibition at Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China. She has also been featured in significant group exhibitions such as 10th Beijing International Art Biennale: International Contemporary Ink Art Special Exhibition, 2025-2026 (until Jan 28); Wandering in the Gardens of Jiangnan, which travelled to Tongji University, Shanghai; University of Florence, Italy; Carré à la Farine Exhibition Hall, Versailles, France, 2024; Youth Will: Beijing Youth Art Biennale, Today Art Museum, Beijing, 2016; Senses: Exhibition of Works by Young Emerging Hong Kong Artists, University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, 2015.

Alisan Fine Arts has represented Zhang since 2017, showcasing her works in numerous group exhibitions in Hong Kong and New York. Her practice has been further shaped by in-depth residency programmes, including a 2025 Washington & Lee University residency that will culminate in an exhibition at Watson Galleries in Fall 2026. 

Her work was collected by the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, USA.

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