He’s a professional painter from Hunan Province, China. Born in 1972, he developed a passion for painting already as a little boy. His parents remember him always collecting scraps of paper to draw on. While others were riding bikes, he collected papers and was sharpening pencils.
His professional life as a painter began in 1996 when Zhao moved to Shenzhen’s Dafen Oil Painting Village in southern China. Here he started to exclusively reproduce Van Gogh’s works for 20 years. By his own estimate Zhao painted over 100,000 copies during that time. At one stage his entire family was in the business of reproducing Van Goghs.
Zhao was first introduced to a wider audience through an award-winning photograph. In 2006, the photographer Yu Haibo photographed Zhao’s workshop in Shenzhen. His portrait won the second prize in the art category of the 49th World Press Photo Award.
Since then, he has been more and more in the international spotlight with countless reporters from around the world writing about his work. He has also been featured on TV in Asia, Australia, Europe and America many times.
Over the years Zhao developed a deep admiration for Van Gogh. He says he started to engage with each painting on a deeper level and yearned to learn more about the person he copied a dozen times a day.
His love for Van Gogh’s artworks made Zhao dream of visiting the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. This dream came true in August 2014. Just before his trip, the Chinese filmmaker Yu Haibo started to produce a documentary about Zhao’s life.
The film “China’s Van Goghs” is an intimate portrait of a peasant-turned oil painter transitioning from making replicas of iconic Western paintings to creating his own authentic artwork was in the official selection of the 2016 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival.
The 2014 visit of the Museum changed Zhao’s life forever. “It was like I had a conversation with Vincent and it became clear to me that I need to embark on a new journey to create my own original artwork” Zhao says. Something he has not done since becoming a professional artist.
After a transitional period where he painted both copies and original art, he is now focused on his original artwork.
Zhao has recently decided to dedicate some time to create paintings reflecting his life’s journey. This body of work will consist of over 50 paintings. Once completed, the paintings will be exhibited in China, North America and Europe.
To focus on this task, Zhao has decided to remove himself from the hustle and bustle of his Shenzhen gallery. He wants to use the solitude of a small art studio to channel his energy.
While on this new journey, he also decided to sell only few of the new paintings. “I want to present my new self to the world in the most comprehensive way possible”, Zhao says. During this time selected works of his are only available as “future options”, meaning any artwork a collector desires to purchase today will not be handed over until they have been shown in his vernissage.