Siyan Zhang (b. 1994, China) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice examines how discourse and narratives produce forms of power that become inscribed on the body and the psyche. Rooted in material metaphor and visual literalism, her work often engages with linguistic slippages, activating double meanings, idioms, and the etymology of a Chinese characters. Through weaving together symbolic, material, and cultural references, Zhang's work inhabits the fragile negotiation between lived experience and social narrative, investigating how private existence and ideological frameworks continuously shape, reinforce, and challenge one another.

Based between Leipzig and Berlin, Zhang is currently studying at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB). Before dedicating herself fully to artistic practice, she studied art history in the United States and worked across a range of art institutions, including the Walker Art Center and Christie's New York, and has guest lectured at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts. This sustained engagement with art history, institutional structures, and cultural production continues to inform her practice today.




Exhibitions

you can look up at the sky, but you must know the sky is also looking down at you  - group - Galerie 52 Essen, DE - 2026

Loom - solo - TTTT Leipzig, DE - 2026

stay with me - group -  HGB Leipzig, DE - 2026

Running on Empty - group - BCMA Berlin, DE - 2025

Notes From a Contact Zone - group - Stadtlabor Lutherstadt Wittenburg, DE- 2024 

100xMB: What to do to make love? (150th Anniversary Program of HGB Library) - group - HGB Leipzig, DE - 2024 

When Theory Lacks Street, a collab of Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ), Mexico & Leipzig Art Academy (HGB) - group - online - 2024

Alien Pebbles - group - HGB Leipzig, DE - 2024 



Education

2023 - Present
Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig, Germany
Diplom Medienkunst

2013 - 2017
Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A.
Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Applied Mathematics