Zhang Huan (; born 1965) is a Chinese artist based in Shanghai and New York City. He began his career as a painter and then transitioned to performance art before making a comeback to painting. He is primarily known for his performance work, but also makes photographs and sculpture. Early life and education Zhang was born in Anyang, Henan Province and named Dong Ming () as a tribute to Chairman Mao. At the age of one, he was sent to live in rural Tangyin County for eight years with his grandmother. He received his B.A. from Henan University in Kaifeng (1988) and his M.A. from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (1993); he changed his name to Zhang Huan in the 1990s when he started his studies at the Central Academy. Career Performance art Zhang Huan helped to establish a small artistic community known as the Beijing East Village, located on the margins of the city. The group of friends from art school pioneered this particular brand of performance in China and Zhang was often reprimanded by officials for the perceived inappropriateness of his actions. Zhang's performance art always involves his body in one way or another, usually naked, occasionally involving masochistic actions. For example, for 12 Square Meters (1994), the accompanying photography exhibit showed him as "a naked man, his head half-shaved, sitting in a prison-like space. His skin was wet and covered with flies. His face looked blank but tough, as if he were trying to meditate his way through pain." In a piece titled To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain (1995), he and nine other artists climbed a mountain near Beijing, stripped and lay down on top of one another to create a second, mini-peak. In another group performance called To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond (1997), he asked 40 migrant laborers to stand in a pond so that their physical presence would raise the water level. He moved to New York City in 1998. Zhang continued his naked performance art in the United States with Pilgrimage — Wind and Water in New York (1998) and My America (Hard to Acclimatize) (1999). Sculpture Zhang returned to China in 2006 and took up sculpture after converting to Buddhism. He also involves the body in his sculptures; his earliest sculptures were giant copper hands and feet, magnified versions of fragments of broken