The gravity-defying sculptural works of Zheng Lu are deeply influenced by his study of traditional Chinese calligraphy, an art form he practiced growing up in a literary family. Zheng Lu uses language as a pictorial element, inscribing the surface of his stainless steel sculptures with thousands of Chinese characters derived from texts and poems of historical significance.

To create his metal sculptures, Zheng Lu begins with a plaster base. He then laser-cuts characters into metal, and in a fashion similar to linking chainmail, the pictographs are connected and heated so that they can be shaped to the support. The resulting works are technically astonishing; their fluid, animated forms are charged with the energy (qi) of the universe, belying their steel composite.

Zheng Lu graduated from Lu Xun Fine Art Academy, Shenyang, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture in 2003. In 2007, he received his Masters of Fine Arts in sculpture from the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, while also attending an advanced study program at The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris in 2006. Zheng Lu has participated in numerous exhibitions in China and abroad, including at the Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem; The Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, Moscow; Musée Océanographique, Monaco; Musée Maillol, Paris; the National Museum of China, Beijing; the Long Museum and the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai.

Born in Chi Feng, Inner Mongolia, in 1978 | Lives and works in Beijing