This series of oil on paper paintings are representative of Zhang Dali's last university years (1986–1987) and of his search for contamination between eastern and western art.

You should paint with the color that expresses your inner most feelings.” It was then that I realized that the portrayal of natural setting landscapes and objects didn’t have to correspond to their actual form but could refer to my inner emotions. "

From 1989 to 1995, while he was living in Bologna, graffiti art presented itself as a means of dialogue between the artist and the people moving in the urban landscape.

After returning to China in 1995, he witnessed the demolition of old alleys and neighborhoods, the forced relocation of the inhabitants and the propaganda to convince the citizens that “modernization” is good and necessary.

He then started to wander the streets by night, on his bicycle with a spray can, leaving on the walls condemned to demolition a head profile and his signature AK-47 and 18K.

In a project that will last a decade, Zhang Dali not only establishes a dialogue with the city's inhabitants, he also asks questions about the legitimacy of modernization, about the costs for the historical and cultural heritage, and the price of physical and psychological suffering.

River water runs ink black and stinks like hell, while plastic bags hang from tree branches and play catch on the grass, nodding and waving in the breeze like severed heads and hands.

Zhang Dali started to use this tag during the nineties in his graffiti as a synonym of the violence permeating the fast urbanization process.

The paintings are acrylic on vinyl, a material widely used for advertisement boards, a feature becoming an integral part of the Beijing’s urban landscape in those years.

In the year preceding the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the capital was invaded by gigantic banners and boards of government propaganda slogans.

Even though this feature has always been a part of Chinese urban and rural landscapes, so much so to become invisible to the passer-by eyes, in 2008 their presence was so ubiquitous to make Zhang Dali ponder on their meaning and on the subtle message implanted in people's head. "

From 2004 to 2010, he has reproduced the bodies of farmers coming into the city in search of work; they became the document of both a specific period in the history of urbanization and a migration of unimaginable proportion.

All over the world images are manipulated, in China such practices have been particularly pervasive since the foundation of the People's Republic and is exposed in this work in its political and aesthetical significance.

The characteristics of the cyanotype attract Zhang Dali for two reasons: it can not be altered or manipulated; it captures the image in a specific instant and it cannot be reproduced.

Zhang Dali has experimented with large size cyanotypes covering subjects such as natural landscapes, vegetations, and human bodies.

Bodies of common people, migrant laborers are shown to the public as classical statues made of marble, material associated to deities and heroes of the past.