Tianzhuo Chen (b. 1985), skillfully merges diverse artistic disciplines from sculpture, installation, video, dance/performance, to photography and fashion. His artistic purpose in gathering and synthesizing work across this range of media, often in reference to popular culture and religious themes, is to create a transcendental state. Many of his artworks feature collaborative elements and audience participation taking the form of a “happening” - for example, an underground party, staged performance, or more conceptually, a constructed ritual site, to transform reality into fantasy. Within his artworks, Chen mixes his well versed knowledge of religious iconography (including Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Shamanism), subculture (underground cultures, drag and rave, etc.), popular culture (e.g cartoons, hip hop and electronic music, etc), and dance (such as Japanese Butoh and Vogueing). His juxtaposition of these elements allows him to give the audience an experience that transcends both superficial states of the body and spirit. Ultimately, arriving at, what the artist himself has referred to, as a “state of madness”.

Chen graduated from London’s Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, and holds a Masters in Fine Arts from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London. His work has been exhibited internationally including at shows: “TIANZHUO CHEN” (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2015), “Ghost” (Kunsthalle Winterthur, Winterthur), “PICNIC PARADI$E BITCH” (BANK, Shanghai, 2014), and “Tianzhuo’s Acid Club” (Star Gallery, Beijing, 2013). He has also performed in various institutions and festivals, such as Barbican Centre (London, 2018), Wiener Festwochen (Vienna, 2017), Theater der Welt (Hamburg, 2017).

Tianzhou Chen lives and works in Beijing, China.