Zhanhong Liao - Echo of time

An artist's life between East and West

Chinese-Dutch artist Zhanhong Liao (Guangzhou, 1965) has lived and worked in the Netherlands since the late 1990s. After studying at City College Manchester and spending periods in London and New York, she settled in Vlaardingen. Her work, ranging from paintings, collages and book objects to installations, performances and digital art, has been exhibited both at home and abroad.

Central themes in her oeuvre are identity, cultural roots, family relationships and the relationship between humans and nature. In each work, she explores the question of how memory, tradition and personal experience change over time and influence each other.

The poetry of time and change

In Echo of Time, Liao explores how the past continues to influence the present. From her early diary objects, in which she questions her identity between East and West, to recent monumental rice paper rolls inspired by Taoist wisdom, her work is always personal, poetic and universally recognisable. She combines Eastern influences with intense use of colour and switches effortlessly between techniques and materials to give each theme its own form.

A visual journey through 25 years of artistry

The exhibition in the Mesdagzaal shows a selection of small, medium-sized and monumental works from the past 25 years. Visitors can see how connection, family, nature and inner peace are recurring themes, whether in realistic portraits of her parents, abstract paintings or sculptural objects.