Chinese-born Zhang Haiying paintings are based on photographs that he found on Anti-Vice Campaign websites aimed at cracking down on prostitution and pornography in China. Zhang’s paintings neither advocate nor criticize illicit activity, but evoke emotion from the associated abuse of power, desperation, exclusion, and vulnerability.
Using dramatic tones, he puts the spotlight on authoritative figures and strip club sleaze. By recontextualizing the way prostitution is represented and perceived, Zhang’s paintings strive to convey the human condition, with all its indignities and weaknesses, as a duplicitous victimization of both the oppressed and oppressors.
