Tony Zhao (b. 2002) is a New York based painter and designer whose work centers on texture as an emotional language. Operating between painting and printmaking, his process-driven practice foregrounds the physicality of paint, challenging the boundaries of material while playing with the legibility of image. Through layered, tactile compositions, Zhao distills the sensitivity of mundane, transforming painted surface into a site of resonance, where narrative emerges through gestures and touch.
Tony Zhao's work is inspired by the sensibility of light and shadow. Through retrospective drawings, these moments of mundane are distilled into traces of passing gaze. By employing spatial and temporal separation, along with process-driven materials, Zhao continuously folds and challenges the boundaries between creator and viewer, the present and memory, reality and imagery. The resulting paintings open up a stage for the audience to share and explore.
Born and raised in Beijing, Tony Zhao received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2024. While in China, he worked as an independent curator and educator at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art. Zhao has exhibited internationally, including the solo exhibition Lake House at A/W Space in 2024, as well as group exhibitions at Union Street Gallery, Chicago (2024), Gelman Gallery, Providence (2024), and UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2020). He was part of the Yale Norfolk School of Art 2023 cohort and was a recipient of the Florence Leif Award in 2024.