Chinese artist Zhang Huan has been awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government. The honour recognizes Zhang’s efforts to promote cultural exchange between France and China, and his general contributions to the field of visual art. The award is the highest medal of honour in France.

Zhang Huan was born in 1965 in Anyang City, Henan Province, and lives and works in Shanghai, China. From 1998 to 2005, he lived in New York, where he gained international recognition. He has had solo exhibitions at the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2011), Shanghai Art Museum (2010), Vancouver Art Gallery (2008), the Asia Society, New York (2007), and the Norton Museum of Art, Florida (2004) and has featured in numerous group exhibitions including the Shanghai Biennial (2010),  the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2008), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2007), the 6th Gwangju Biennale (2006), Whitney Biennial (2002). In September 2009, he directed his first opera, Semele (by George Frideric Handel) in Brussels and Beijing, and the following year, participated in the Shanghai World Expo.

In addition to making art, Zhang has opened over 30 “Zhang Huan Hope Schools” in indigent areas of China.

The French Consul General in Shanghai holds an award ceremony for Zhang on May 20.

2014 marks 50 years of diplomatic connections between France and China, celebrated through the France-Chine 50 cultural and exchange programmes in both countries.

Read more on artnet

Image: © Zhang Huan Studio