Zhan Wang was born in 1962 in Beijing, China. He graduated from the sculpture department of the Central Academy of Fine. Zhan Wang is widely recognized as one of China's leading contemporary artists today. His sculpturally informed practice challenges ideas of landscape and environment, addressing the urban, rural, artificial and industrial. Zhan Wang's art is a particular perspective fundamentally anchored in his relationship to his own cultural heritage. His pieces consist of conceptual ideas where he "embraces and subverts several other major traditions in modern art, both Chinese and Euro-American".

Zhan Wang has exhibited extensively in major museums, galleries and Biennales across the world including the National Museum of China, Beijing, China; Kunst Museum, Bern, Switzerland; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; International Center of Photography, New York, USA; and the 50th Venice Biennale Chinese Pavilion. He has also executed a number of art projects at significant landmarks such as Mount Everest and the Great Wall of China. He is also the first Chinese artist whose work is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.