Yu Zhang

Yu Zhang was born in Yunnan province in 1993, a region in south west China with 26 officially recognised ethnic minorities. After studying design at Central Saint Martins in London, he returned to his hometown Ruili to engage with these ethnic cultures and help them thrive in the modern world. 

His series, Night Banquet, reinterprets the traditional architecture and ornamentation of the Dai people into a contemporary design language rendered in aluminium, tin and polycarbonate instead of the typical gold. Rather than creating works for religious environments, he creates vessels and candlesticks for the home, introducing Dai culture to daily life. The award-winning contemporary Chinese artist uses CNC processes to carve and form his works to capture the intricacies of the traditional carving. 

Almost 50 of Zhang’s works have been collected by museums in China, including the National Arts and Crafts Museum of China in Beijing and the Yunnan Museum in Kunming. He has written many academic papers on Yunnan ethnic culture research, published in China's main journals.