Zhang Hongbin

Zhang Hongbin is the Chief Curator of the Venice International Watercolor Festival, and one of the festival's core founders and principal driving forces.

He is the creator of the "Colourful China — International Plein Air Painting Week" programme, through which he has organized numerous joint painting residencies and academic exchange activities bringing together Chinese and international artists in locations including the ancient water town of Zhouzhuang in Suzhou and various destinations across Europe. With an unwavering commitment to bringing contemporary Chinese realist art to the world stage, Zhang Hongbin has earned wide professional recognition and influence within the art communities of both China and abroad.
 

Beyond his curatorial work, Zhang Hongbin serves as the China Promotion Ambassador of the American Society of Portrait Artists and as an Artist Ambassador of the Art Renewal Center (ARC) in the United States. He has served as a juror for a number of prestigious international art competitions, including the Spanish International Figurative Painting and Sculpture Competition, the Almenara Art Prize (Spain), and the Belgian International Figurative Art Competition. Dedicated to the promotion of contemporary figurative art — and contemporary realism in particular — he has conceived and organized a series of landmark international art events, among them the Titian Painting Competition, the Velázquez Painting and Sculpture Competition, and the Venice International Watercolor Festival.