Burigude Zhang was born in Inner Mongolia, China in 1961. He grew up before starting school age on the Mongolian prairie during the period of the Cultural Revolution. After graduation from the Teacher Training College of the Inner Mongolian locality, he worked as an high school teacher in visual art. Two years later, in 1982 he was accepted to the Centre Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing, the most prestigious fine art institute where who built up his ambitions and knowledge as a great artist. He accomplished his Bachelor degree from CAFA, he then started teaching at the Beijing Union University. He was always seeking a challenge with his training in traditional and institutionalized concepts. In1994 he visited England, where he obtained a Bachelor of Art (Honours) degree in Painting and a Master of Art degree in Printmaking from Bradford College, England on a full scholarship. He was invited to be artist in residence at Bradford College in 1998 continuing to 2000. He currently lives and works as a professional artist in Toronto as he emigrated to Canada in 2001. He has had many solo and selected exhibitions in many countries. His work was highly regarded as a very unique creative style with a strong oriental cultural identity but powerful contemporary expression.
“Chinese master Tao-Chi spoke of the single brushstroke as the origin of all existence; this is the fundamental structure of my practice. In my abstract paintings, I intend to express both vitality and human consciousness through the application of bold, yet spontaneous marks. In this simplistic process, I intend to capture an unadulterated moment within the larger framework of human existence. The strokes are not depicting but translate the abstract notions of comfort, joy, straightforwardness and faithfulness, while performing a body of gestures that visualize a sense of ultimate reality. I have often been inspired by transitional moments within day to day life. Rather than settle on those resolutions that we aspire to achieve, my works intend to explore the unresolved space in between; in this way, viewers are asked to momentarily abandon the confines of daily life in order to subject themselves to a less concrete reality, one that is full of experiential and emotional potential.”
“My painting is neither a fashion thing, nor the appearance of a thing, looking for a unique way to express my mind while aware of an Oriental cultural spirit once again. Chinese calligraphic ink-and-wash operation pattern and the psychological pattern of Chinese character structure is the basic clue to his abstract artistic exploration.”
“It’s necessary for me to eradicate the most rigid and restricted thing in tradition, in order to re-experience and pour a new spirit into it. Thus, either the audience or I can examine the carefree and elegant live brush and ink, experiencing a spiritual state that stays away from the scene of contention. And it’s more important that its production process releases the irreversible and unrepeatable randomness of fresh life. It is different from Western painting tradition when artists portray the objects, struggling and venting in language and personality again and again, with the arrival of the goal by repeatedly producing.”
