Zhan Wang is a contemporary Chinese artist best known for his series of Artificial Rock sculptures. Melding the traditional Chinese scholar’s rocks with the industrial medium of stainless steel, Zhan reexamines the original function of these decorative objects. “Placed in a traditional courtyard, rockery satisfied people's desire to return to nature by offering them stone fragments from nature. But huge changes in the world have made this traditional ideal increasingly out of date,” he explained. “The material's glittering surface, ostentatious glamour, and illusory appearance make it an ideal medium to convey new dreams.” Born in 1962 in Beijing, China, he studied at the Beijing Industrial Arts College and later the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In the early 1990s, Zhan broke from the Socialist Realist tradition of depicting important political figures, by choosing common people on the sidewalks as his subjects. Over the years that followed, the artist has continued to explore the borders of traditional Chinese aesthetics crossing the threshold into contemporary art. He continues to live and work in Beijing, China. Today, Zhan’s work is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.