Erica Zhan

Statement

Erica Zhan (b. southeastern hills in China) is an interdisciplinary artist and writer based in Chicago, US. Swallowed by their experiences of intensive consumerism, celebration capitalism and dynamics of competition, Zhan explores the paradigm of contemporary games and sports, as well as the vulnerability shaped by competitive intensity in the context of late capitalism. Weaving the mediums of performance, video and experimental writing, they simulate and provoke the authentic living situation, scrutinizing the zones of freedom in human society that have been eroded by professionalism and commodification, returning them to their original state of nakedness. Zhan is devoted to transcoding humor, melancholy, sentimentality, play, and poetry.

GlogauAIR Project

During this residency I hope to work on my ongoing research-based artistic project “Whole Olympics Catalog”, which is inspired by the visual components of the Olympics and the paradigm of their generating and molding. The title draws inspiration from the American counterculture magazine “Whole Earth Catalog” from the 1960s. I try to elaborate the spirit from the magazine and connect the visual appearance of the Olympics, the representation of the contest, with its strategy of worldwide consumption. This project will mimic the format of a merchants catalog, digging into the historical materials in a playful and unconventional manner, aiming to craft new prosthetics for the Olympics of their banal nationalism and commodification.

CV Summary

Education

• 2023 MA, Visual and Critical Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
• 2021 BA, International Business with Communication Studies, University of Nottingham (Ningbo)
• 2019 Summer Study Abroad, Art History, Criticism and Communication, Central Saint Martins

Exhibitions & Performances

• 2024 White Heat, {\}() {\}∆‡!(){\} Tangential Unspace Art Lab, Chicago, IL
• 2024 knock, and the doors of perception shall be opened unto you, International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, IL
• 2023 and the home of the [placeholder]—S1E3, Terrain Biennial 2023, Chicago IL
• 2023 Exquisite Corpse Video Project, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL
• 2023 and the home of the [placeholder]—S1E1, Comfort Station, Chicago, IL
• 2023 The time has come, to talk of many things, ACRE Projects Gallery, Chicago, IL
• 2019 Becoming, Became, I am what I am, Central Saint Martins, London, UK

Professional Experience

• 2023-Present Exhibition Assistant, Comfort Station, Chicago
• 2023 Works of Art Collection Support, Arts Department of Chicago Public Schools, Chicago
• 2022 Teaching Assistant, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
• 2019-2022 Intern Editor & Public Event Assistant, The Art Newspaper China, Shanghai
• 2019-Present Freelance Writer
• 2018 Gallery Assistant, Long March Space, Beijing
• 2018 Gallery Assistant & Graphic Designer, Magician Space, Beijing
• 2018 Research Assistant, University of Nottingham, Ningbo

Publications

• Walking on A Moment So Fleeting—Watching the Mystery of Jiang Jie’s Life, The Art Journal, August 2023
• Artists Haven’t Forgotten—20 Years Since 9/11, The Art Journal , September 2021
• Starting Anew at the Crossroads—Choices and Futures of New Art Graduates, The Art Journal, July 2021
• Inspiration of Exceptional Status—A New World of Online Art in the Post-Pandemic Era, The Art Journal, April 2021
• Contemporary Art Leaps Into The Digital Era—The Emerging Global Digital Map of Art Events, The Art Journal, April 2021
• Sisyphus and The Ship of Theseus—Li Binyuan’s Decade-Long Journey of Self-Sculpture, The Art Journal, December, 2019

Gallery