Jichi Zhang (b. 2001, Hohhot, China) is a London-based artist working primarily in writing and sculpture. His mother is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, and as a child he often spent time in the hospital department where she worked. He would sometimes help medical staff by stamping blank patient forms before they were filled in. He is concerned with protection, support, care and the distribution of responsibility.

He works with protective film, tape and construction sheeting. These materials protect other objects from damage by taking the wear and tear themselves. Once treated as artworks, materials that could previously be removed, replaced or discarded become objects to be kept and cared for. By folding and hanging the film, making temporary connections and adjusting its tension, he explores how its surface interacts with architecture, gravity and air. How much can a work change and still be recognised as the same work? When is it considered damaged or replaced, or judged to have ceased to exist? These judgements involve its material form, the labour required to sustain it, and who is permitted to handle or change it.

The titles am, if and by come from his experience of learning and moving between languages. They are like grammatical fragments awaiting continuation, echoing the works’ dependence on their surrounding conditions.

In his current research, he is developing the idea of ‘selective continuity’, asking which attributes and relationships are retained, which are considered expendable, and who has the authority to decide. Preserving a work’s appearance does not necessarily preserve the conditions under which people can access or participate in it. He draws on museum descriptions of artworks and on conservation practice to examine these questions in his own installations. Making support structures visible does not necessarily alter the distribution of authority. These questions also concern his own position as an artist: his instructions can create room for interpretation while limiting the changes others can make.

Zhang is currently studying for an MA in Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. He graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2025 with a first-class BA (Hons) in Fine Art. As an undergraduate, he received funding to study in David Schutter’s class at the Berlin University of the Arts on an Erasmus exchange in 2024. He also received funding to take the postgraduate course Imagining the Other at St George’s, University of London, completing it in 2026 alongside his MA studies. This experience deepened his interest in protection and maintenance.

He is also a long-term artist-in-residence at INHERILA Life Science Technology in the UK. His interest in institutional critique took shape through this experience. In 2024, he was a corresponding author of a research paper on music classification published in Scientific Reports, a Nature Portfolio journal.

His work has been exhibited internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include if (Chinese American Arts Council, New York, 2025), by (L Gallery, Hangzhou, 2026) and am (Absent Gallery, Guangzhou, 2025). Support Room (2026) is a two-month residency project funded by Absent Gallery. His work has also been presented at the National Gallery (London), Saatchi Gallery (London), Council Gallery (Leicester), Brighton Palace Pier (Brighton) and Changchuan Art Museum (Suzhou).

He also conducts independent research into a range of financial institutions, hoping to record information that might signal an approaching economic crisis.