Zhang Peili /
DigiRadiance | Zhang Peili: A Day /
Jan 21 – Feb 20, 2026 /
Talk: Jan 20, 6pm – 7pm /
Zhang Peili, Shuman Wang (curator), Dr Pi Li (Head of Art) /
F Hall Studio
Tai Kwun 10 Hollywood Road
Central, Hong Kong
Mon – Sun, 11am – 7pm
Tai Kwun Contemporary presents DigiRadiance | Zhang Peili: A Day, a new digital art exhibition from internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Zhang Peili, on view from 21 Jan to 20 Feb 2026 at F Hall Studio. Curated by Tai Kwun’s Associate Curator Shuman Wang, Zhang Peili: A Day features a newly commissioned eight-channel video installation that explores notions of temporality, illness, and the body. This exhibition creates a new experience of reality through different media technologies, guiding viewers through everyday public and private spaces that reveal an interwoven yet alienated sense of time and space.
In this exhibition, the newly commissioned installation A Day emphasises subjective visual experiences and consists of real-life footage captured from a first-person perspective, along with videos from news sources and surveillance cameras, medical imagery, and data-generated images. Interspersed are scenes of skin peeling, obstructed movements, and everyday observations, which repeatedly appear as flashbacks, giving an impression of futility and aimlessness. They play at constantly changing speeds and camera angles, then lose momentum, and ultimately the camera is dropped – which metaphorically reflects the deviations in psychological states and social norms experienced during an illness. Using the dual dimensions of vision and cognition to understand the concept of deviation, this work explores the passage of time, the limits of the body, and the social metaphors that the mind and body may aspire to reach. In A Day, Zhang mixes footage of everyday life with AI-generated images to create an alternative sense of reality, which resonates with the universal experience of navigating an era of uncertainty.
Regarding his concerns about the techniques of virtual reality, Zhang Peili said: “AI technologies and network technologies have brought a new issue to the image: they are producing a new kind of reality. This reality of the image runs almost parallel to the reality of the ‘real’ world in which we live. They unfold side by side. In my view, I prefer to take fragments of experience, or elements that come from the realm of fantasy, dreams, or the subconscious, and blur them together with shards of lived reality to construct a new reality.”
In recent years, Zhang Peili’s practice has shifted partly towards a contemplation of his surroundings and a reflection on himself, asking how one perceives the limitations of the body and life through the medium of video. This new work maintains his interest in illness and the body but places a greater emphasis on the collection of subjective visual experiences, which differs from earlier painting works that used gloves as a subtle representation of the body, as well as recent examinations of pathological reports and the materiality of organs and bones.
DigiRadiance: Conversation with Zhang Peili
Visitors are welcome to join the conversation between Zhang Peili, curator Shuman Wang, and Dr Pi Li, Head of Art, at Tai Kwun on 20 Jan 2026 from 6pm to 7pm. The three speakers will focus on Zhang Peili’s newly commissioned work and will engage in a discussion of his artistic concerns over the past 40 years. They will compare themes such as surveillance and data, temporality, illness and the body, and hygiene and cleanliness – which have consistently recurred throughout the artist’s long-standing practice – to understand the subtle changes in the artist’s language in recent years. The session is open to the public and is free of charge. Please register on the Tai Kwun website.