Zhao Zhao was born in Xinjiang, China in 1982 and currently lives in Beijing, China and Los Angeles, USA.
Zhao Zhao's creative style is abundant and diverse. He is very adept at adopting multiple mediums to challenge realistic circumstances, ideologies, and traditions (Suit, 2016). He once said, "I am a person who is not afraid of being tortured by the society". Through Zhao Zhao's performance art, paintings, sculptures, installations and videos, we can feel Zhao Zhao's uncompromising resistance from a personal perspective. Meanwhile, various forms of his artworks disclose that he is constantly questioning the meaning of individual beings. No one can understand the truths of the world precisely, through his artistic practice, Zhao Zhao stimulates audiences to rethink and seek the truth.
Zhao Zhao believes that the symbolism, fragmented aesthetics, and texture of different materials can provide diverse imagination and visual striking group narratives. The earlier artworks in his famous Fragments series were narratives of Zhao Zhao's memories, but as the materials changed, Fragments evolved into new artworks: Desert, Constellations and In Extremis, and took on more macro contexts and reflections.
Apart from contemporary art, Zhao Zhao also was addicted into traditional culture and Chinese artefacts. QiongJiu Gallery was found by Zhao Zhao as an art space linking traditional Chinese art with contemporary art. He once wrapped the Chinese Kangxi Emperor's throne in red wax as a red waterfall, mapping the blood and brutality of authoritarian power (Waterfall, 2013). He incorporates the glaze textures of Song Dynasty Jian Zhan pottery into his Constellations series, constructing a new way to explore and imagine the universe.
Zhao Zhao is considered as one of the most internationally influential post-80s contemporary artists in China. In 2017, his artwork Project Taklamakan was selected as poster and catalogue cover image for the Yokohama Triennale. In 2019, Zhao Zhao won the Artist of the Year Award at the Thirteenth Award of Art China (AAC).