Conceptual artist Michael Zheng was born in China and is currently based in San Francisco. His general interest is in ontological explorations. He has a regular practice of Ch’an Buddhism, meditation and yoga, which has a profound influence on his art. By reconstituting the formal and cultural elements of the situation, his work provides an indexical pointer to a possible new experience with the familiar. His work is performative in nature and often takes the form of performance, sculptural installation, and drawings.
Michael has exhibited his work worldwide, including in the Baltic Triennial in ICA/London, Vancouver Biennial, Marina Abramovic Institute West/San Francisco, Portland Museum of Art Biennial/USA, Contemporary Jewish Museum/San Francisco, Berkeley Art Museum/USA, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria/Canada, Macao Museum of Art/China, SAVVY Contemporary/ Berlin, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts/San Francisco.
He has received fellowships from MacDowell Colony and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His works have been reviewed in Sculpture Magazine, Yishu, Artweek, Shotgun Review, San Francisco Chronicle, SF Weekly, The BayCitizen, Portland Phoenix, Neue Rheinische Zeitung and Rheinische Post in Germany, Lietuvos Zinios and Lietuvos Rytas in Lithuania, and the Artists Magazine in Taiwan, among others.