Ambassador
Wanxin Zhang grew up in China, and moved to the United States as an adult. As a child in China, he was fascinated with sculpture, and his most inspiring moment in art was when he first saw the warriors at Xian, from the tomb of China’s first emperor, Qui Shi Huang, who died in 210 B.C. Zhang was struck by the great care the artists had taken in making each warrior’s individualized characteristics.
Two millenia later, Zhang, also a Chinese sculptor, decided to make his own contemporary “warriors”. His personages are not guarding the tomb of an emperor they serve; instead, they express their modern, urban freedoms. Some sport contemporary hairstyles, glasses, even binoculars, to assert the fact that they hold the treasures of history in their souls, yet they forge their own way forward.
Zhang’s works have drawn great curatorial and critical acclaim in the United States. Museums from one coast to the other have featured his works in their exhibitions and permanent collections.