About

Mr John Z Long is a Los Angeles-based artist. He has been a leading avant-garde art practitioner since the 1980s. His abstract series KuangMo has been well received internationally and now is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2018, his KuangMo series received the golden award in International Invitation Exhibition, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.

Experimenting with lines and colours, John Zhang Long was fascinated by abstract concepts, visual arts and music. In 1985, he organised the New Concrete Image exhibition and subsequently played a significant role in forming contemporary Chinese art. The French art organisation SPADEM (Société de la Propriété Artistique et des Dessins et Modèles) invited him to join in 1990. His private solo show was sponsored by HP and Apple computer in 1991, one of the first few of the kind.

He is also one of the only few at that time to have a solo exhibition at the Shanghai Gallery, a prestigious national art institution. During his Shanghai solo show, he surprised the host by improvising the performance art called Eating Apples. It was well documented and celebrated as one of the best art presentations of the time. 

In the 1990s, the artist went to New York and made a successful solo exhibition at Gallery 459 in the Broadway. The show was sponsored by the Chinese American Arts Council (CAAC) and was well celebrated by the New York Times.

After settling in Los Angeles, John Zhang Long has been more engaging in contemporary society. Having been working in the film industry for a long time, he absorbed a lot of visual languages and successfully transformed into his unique abstract rendering. 

In recent years, John Zhang Long sold his artwork and donated to charity, helping children who suffer from orofacial cleft. Meanwhile, he received great revelation in supporting people who are traumatised as he were in the past. John Zhang Long was resurrected by creating art and appreciating music. 

He was invited by the Art Institute of Chicago and National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto to have exhibitions and talks. In 2018 he had his solo exhibition at the Top Gallery, HK.