Zhang Linhai's Painting--Purple Series No. 10, displayed on exhibit at the Today Museum, Beijing (YUAN YUAN)

A solo exhibition with the title Stunned Speechless was held at the Today Museum, Beijing, from November 19-29. The exhibition features a collection of old works of the artist Zhang Linhai, borrowed from private collections worldwide, alongside some new works, which were seen for the first time.

Born in 1963 in Shanghai, Zhang was adopted from a Shanghai orphanage by a couple from a small village in Hebei Province. He experienced the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) in his childhood and witnessed the devastation first-hand. Meanwhile, he suffered various diseases, including polio, which left him with a crippled leg. His interest in painting started at 17: "only by painting could I find a way to escape the crude reality during those hard times," said Zhang.

This is shown in his works with the signature depiction of bald boys wandering around, sitting quietly, or even flying in the sky against the background of a wasteland or countryside village. "The memory of my childhood impresses me most and I want to express my fear, sadness and hope through the eyes of these bald boys," said Zhang.

After his graduation from Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in 1990, Zhang had already held several solo exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, Stunned Speechless is a continuation of the previous three-man exhibition, hosted for Zhang along with two other artists, Wang Yidong and Cai Guoqiang, at MKM Museum Küppersmühle in Germany in 2005. The exhibition also shows Zhang's first sculptural installations and a retrospective book on Zhang will also be published by Today Art Museum's publishing house.