ZHOU Hao

Biography, Selected Exhibitions and Public Collections

Biography

Zhou Hao was born in Shanghai, China, in 1960. From the age of six through his high school years, he spent approximately ten years living through the Cultural Revolution.

In 1983, he came to Japan as a privately funded international student. The following year, he entered the Department of Oil Painting at Musashino Art University. In his third year, he transferred to the newly established printmaking course, becoming a member of its first graduating class and studying lithography. During this period, his work gradually shifted toward abstraction.

At the same time, he encountered the Mingei philosophy of Yanagi Sōetsu, which made a profound impression on him. Through the writings of Suzuki Daisetsu on Zen, he also began to reconsider the classical culture of his native country. While reading works on Daoist thought, particularly Laozi and Zhuangzi, he developed a strong interest in contemporary art in both Japan and the West.

In 1987, he received a scholarship from the Koyama Keizo Foundation for the Promotion of Art and participated in the first Asian Art Student Residency Program, working in residence at the Shirakaba Museum of Art in Yamanashi Prefecture, with the support of Tokyo Gallery Yoshii.

In 1988, he graduated from the Printmaking Course, Department of Oil Painting, College of Art and Design, Musashino Art University. In 1989, he received a Japanese Government Scholarship from the Ministry of Education. In 1990, he completed the master’s program in printmaking at the Graduate School of Art and Design, Musashino Art University.

After completing graduate school, he joined MMG, a printmaking studio in Higashi-Azabu, Tokyo, directed by printmaker Yusaku Masuda. While working in plate preparation and printing, he continued to produce and exhibit his own prints. He left the studio in 2003 and thereafter devoted himself fully to his artistic practice.

In 2008 and again in 2010, through the introduction of Yusaku Masuda, he produced intaglio prints at Atelier Rémy Bucciali in France. In 2016, he participated in the LOVEART – Summer Artists Residence Project and worked in residence in Italy.

Based between Shanghai and Yokohama, Zhou Hao continued his artistic practice and presented solo exhibitions primarily in Japan and China, while also participating in international print exhibitions and art fairs in Japan and abroad.

He passed away in September 2023 at the age of 62.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022
Zhou Hao Solo Exhibition, Artland Gallery, Marugame, Japan

2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2018, 2021
Zhou Hao Solo Exhibition, Kobo, Tokyo, Japan

2003
Zhou Hao Abstract Print Exhibition, Shanghai Xintiandi No. 1 Club, Shanghai, China

2005
Zhou Hao Abstract Works Exhibition, Shanghai Peninsula Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Zhou Hao Solo Exhibition, Itamuro Onsen Daikokuya, Nasushiobara, Tochigi, Japan

2007
Zhou Hao Solo Exhibition, Shanghai Art Fair, presented by T. Art Gallery, Shanghai, China

2013
Zhou Hao Solo Exhibition, Art Nagoya, presented by Artland Gallery, Nagoya, Japan

2016, 2018
Zhou Hao Solo Exhibition, Around Space Gallery, Shanghai, China
Zhou Hao Solo Exhibition, Niigata Eya, Niigata, Japan

2019
Zhou Hao Solo Exhibition, Kobe Art Marche, presented by Artland Gallery, Kobe, Japan
Zhou Hao: Cast Painting, N3 Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

2021
Zhou Hao Solo Exhibition, NOHAKO, Tokyo, Japan

2022
fragments – Zhou Hao, WATERMARK art & crafts, Tokyo, Japan

2023
Zhou Hao Solo Exhibition, Kochuraku, Kagoshima, Japan

Selected Exhibitions Since 2024

2024
Zhou Hao Exhibition, Galerie Watts, Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan
Zhou Hao Exhibition, O Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Zhou Hao Exhibition, Kobo, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan
Zhou Hao Exhibition, Artland Gallery, Marugame, Japan
Zhou Hao Exhibition, MUD Gallery, Shanghai, China

2025
Zhou Hao Exhibition, Shonan Nishiwaki Gallery, Fujisawa, Japan
Zhou Hao Exhibition, Kochuraku, Kagoshima, Japan
Zhou Hao Exhibition, Ushio Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2026
Zhou Hao Watercolor Exhibition, Galerie Watts, Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan
Hashimoto Collection Exhibition, Niigata Eya, Niigata, Japan
Zhou Hao Exhibition, Artland Gallery, Marugame, Japan
Zhou Hao Exhibition, WATERMARK art & crafts, Kunitachi, Tokyo, Japan

Selected Group Exhibitions, International Exhibitions and Art Fairs

1987
12th University Print Exhibition (Purchase Award for the Permanent Collection), Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, Machida, Japan

1989
4th International Biennial Print Exhibit, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

1990, 1991, 1994
Japan Print Association Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

1997
International Print Triennial Kraków, Poland
22nd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, Yugoslavia

1997, 2001, 2002
CWAJ Print Show, Tokyo, Japan

1998
6th Maison Franco-Japonaise Poster Design Competition (Honorable Mention), Bunkamura Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

1999
12th Norwegian International Print Triennale, Fredrikstad, Norway

1999, 2002
Yamamoto Kanae Print Grand Prix Competition, Ueda Sōzōkan, Ueda, Nagano, Japan

2002
5th Kochi International Triennial Exhibition of Prints, Ino-cho Paper Museum, Kochi, Japan

2002, 2003
Zhou Hao + Takatoshi Zoyama Two-Person Exhibition, Kobo, Tokyo, Japan

2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010
Shanghai Art Fair, Shanghai, China

2004
Asia International Art Exhibition, invited artist, Daegu Culture and Arts Center, Daegu, South Korea

2009, 2010
ART PARIS, Paris, France

2009, 2012
ART ÉLYSÉES, Paris, France

2011
1st Beijing International Print Expo, Baiyaxuan Art Salon, Beijing, China

2013–2018
Kobe Art Marche, Kobe, Japan

2014–2020
Art Nagoya, Nagoya, Japan

2017
Zhou Hao + Katsunori Yaoita Two-Person Exhibition, Fuuro, Tokyo, Japan

2017–2019
Art on Paper, New York, USA

2018, 2019
ART021 Shanghai, Shanghai, China

2024
Zhou Hao + Katsunori Yaoita + Katsuyo Takezaki, Three-Person Exhibition, WATERMARK art & crafts, Kunitachi, Tokyo, Japan

2025
The Collector’s Eye, Gallery M, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

Selected Public Collections

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
Smith College Museum of Art, USA
Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, Japan
Advertising Museum, France
National Museum, Poland
Centre of International Graphic Work, Norway
Musashino Art University Museum & Library, Japan
Shenzhou Printmaking Museum, China
Tama Art University Museum, Japan
Sekiguchi Museum, Japan

Beyond the Stillness　　　　　　　　　Zhou Go August 2013

When I was a teenager, I dreamed of becoming a painter after reading the works of Repin and Levitan (both Russian realist painters). It may be hard to imagine from my current works, but Repin and Levitan are still my idols.

It was more than 30 years ago when I first came to Japan. There were many worthwhile art exhibitions from Europe and the United States. I will never forget the first time I saw Mondrian's paintings that were merely divided screens and Judd's three-dimensional works that looked as if they were merely plastic blocks arranged in a row, and I felt as if I had been somewhat taunted.

Thirty years have passed since then, and the purity of spirit and courage conveyed by Mondrian's and Judd's work has moved me so much that I have become one of their admirers. It took me 30 years to understand the greatness of Mondrian and Judd.

Somewhere along the line, my questions about my own work changed from "What's missing? to "What is too much? Around the time of my graduation project, I lost interest in the descriptive appeal of figurative painting, and after a period of deformation, I turned to complete abstraction.
In recent years, my abstraction has changed to a simplification of "pictoriality - color and form". Although color and form are the elements that make up a painting, they have become too commonplace, and I have grown weary of the aesthetic fatigue.

I decided to stop the work that had been done by putting down each moment on the paper, and instead, I began to work steadily, applying more than a dozen layers of paint. He decided to stop the work that had been done by putting down each moment on the paper, and instead, he began to work steadily, applying more than a dozen layers of paint. It was more like plastering than the work of a painter. However, it is a surprisingly difficult task to maintain the consistency of the brushstrokes.
It is not good enough to aim, and it is not good enough not to aim. It is like a Zen practitioner in a whirlpool of confusion. It is also unbearable.

The soul loves simplicity," this unfounded belief had somehow turned into an obsession within me. What I seek is simplicity that is rewarding to look at and feels like iron wrapped in cotton. I was also after a surface that seemed to have grown out of the screen, a surface with almost no color. I liked the smell of spirit that emerged from the surface.

The pursuit of simplicity and conciseness, in contrast to the wonder of having one's spirituality sharply questioned, made my work worthwhile and rewarding. It seems that artists are programmed from the start with the diligence of laborers, the piety of believers, and the skepticism of philosophers. Even if left alone, they work, and they work hard.

In Japan, my work is often described as “continental". In China, it has been called "Japanese," and in the West, “Oriental". Either way, it is a "work of a foreigner". Recently, I have come to realize that I am neither Japanese nor Chinese, but an "Oriental without a homeland".