Zhenru Liang (b. 1994, China) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working between Berlin and Milan. Her work maps the overlap of urban systems, geological processes, and planetary memory. Through site-responsive interventions, installation, performance, and painting, Liang explores how landscapes become sites of negotiation between human agency, geological forces, and deep temporal processes.
Her ongoing project Temporary Theater develops ephemeral anti-monumental structures using raw building materials, revealing processes of construction, de-construction, and transformation. In recent years, her research has focused on volcanic landscapes as living archives of deep time, material, and planetary evolution, examining the relationship between human inhabitation and geological temporalities.
Liang holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Academy of fine arts of Brera, Milan, where she taught in 2025, and a Master of Arts in Art in Context from the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). Her work has been presented in international contexts, including collective projects within the framework of the Venice Biennale (2022, 2023, 2025), Poetry Session (2024), exhibition Der Fluss bin ich – Tatort Paderborn (2025), and exhibitions at nGbK and Bärenzwinger, Berlin (2025).
FELLOWSHIP
- RTL Architecture Interventions – Communitism, Athens, 2024
- Temporary Theater #3, Artists inside, Berlin, 2022
- Winner of the sculpture competition for the Dante Alighieri Lifetime Achievement Award, Milan, 2020.
RESIDENCE
- Bohemia Farmstudio, Prague, 2023
- Bòlit Centre d’Art Contemporani, Girona, 2022
- Situ festival, Sicilia, 2021
COLLABORATIONS
- Sediment Insel 1,2,3, Der Fluss bin ich – public art exhibition, in collaboration with raumlaborberlin, Paderborn, 2025
- Bauhaus_Spielraum@Gropiusstadt, Partecipation and collaboration with Bauhaus Archive, Costructions aspirate from Buahaus, Familienzentrum Apfelsinenkirche, Berlin, 2024
- KEYANG WU. Present and Transcendence: The Eastern Dimension, curated by Zhenru Liang together with Massimo Mattioli and Guopeng Liu, Garibaldi Gallery, Milan, 2024
- Tania Bruguera, Where Your Ideas Become Civic Actions (100 Hours Reading “The Origins of Totalitarianism”). Partecipation fo the performance by Tania Bruguera at Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin, 2023
- BENEDETTA TAGLIABUE – EMBT, Century Square in East Nanjing Road, Shanghai. Collaboration and artistic intervention for the realization of the square with the architecture studio EMBT with Massimo Mazzone, 2023
- Sound of Titanium – Habitable Sculptures, Educational project of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, academic year 2019/20, curated by Zhenru Liang, 2020
EXHIBITIONS (selection)
2025
- Sediment Insel 1,2,3, Der Fluss bin ich – public art exhibition, Paderborn, in collaboration with raumlaborberlin
https://www.tatort-paderborn.de/de/kunstwerke-und-karte/sedimente/8
- “Parlament der Steine” performative installation, Fix it! – Renovate don’t Speculate, nGbK, Berlin
2024
- “Sculpting the landscape” – Public sculpture parks in Italy. Phenomenology, development, promotion. The Brufa case, Brufa
- Utopia! Architecture and Human Rights – 1st edition, AAIE center for contemporary art, Rome
- Tardor d’Art de Formentera 2024 Art festival, Formentera Ibiza
- Biennale Session of poetry – Biennale Arte 2024, Escuela Moderna/Ateneo Libertario & ApARTe°, Venice
- 48 Stunden Neukölln, Build to Bond, Berlin
- RTL Architecture Interventions – Communitism, Athens
2023
- Temporary Theater #8 Eternal return, Biennale LANDschafftKUNST IX, Brandenburg
- Temporary Theater #7, Lago Albano, Castel Gandolfo
- Temporary Theater #6 Bohemia, Prague
- Biennale Session, Biennale Architettura 2023 di Venezia, Albanese Park, Venezia Mestre
- Hard Heart, Graphisches Zentrum, Spoliler, Berlin
https://segnonline.it/liang-e-i-mattoni
2022
- Temporary Theater #5 (Eternal circulation and dynamic contemporary), Gardens of John Lennon in Girona, Girona
- Temporary Theater #4, History Museum of Girona, Girona
https://tempsarts.cat/arts-visuals/zhenru-liang-la-potencia-del-foc/
https://segnonline.it/zhenru-liang-la-potenza-del-fuoco/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48X2l9jhZcM
http://www.rad-art.org/artists/Zhenru_Liang/radart_artists_Zhenru_Liang_1.htm
- Residency project at Bòlit Contemporary Art Center, Girona, Catalunya
- Temporary Theater #3 (Asylum), Fellowship Artist Inside, Berlin
- Temporary Theater#2, Castellammare del Golfo, Sicilia
(Destructiveness of Human Consciousness)
- Temporary Theater#1, Etna, Sicilia
https://segnonline.it/il-movimento-continuo-delle-sculture-abitabili-di-licia-zhenru-liang/
https://kosmodromio.gr/2022/04/22/teatrum-mundis
https://universitiesunited.eu/licia-liang/
2021
- Dark Ecstasy, Sì Studio, Young Artists Group Exhibition, Milan
- Ascensione, Situ festival, ex convent church of San Domenico, Sicily
- Two worlds – Peripheral life, IPER, festival of the suburbs, Rome
https://iperfestival.it/portfolio/zhenru-liang-due-mondi-vita-periferica/
- Archetype of Energy, Expansa, tempio del futuro perduto, Milan
2020
- The garden of titanium, Sant’angelo di Roccalvecce, Viterbo
– MAAM Museo dell’altro e dell’altrove di Metropoliz, Rome
- “New Forms of Living Nature in Community”, presentation of inhabited sculptures, MonteromanoVT
2019
- VICENZAORO T-Gold jewelry fair, forME & OROTIG, Vicenza
- Olio Officina Festival 2019 8th edition, Palazzo Delle Stelline, Milan
- f.u.o.r.i. – F.Fuorisalone Milano 2019, Ex church di San Carpoforo, Milan
- Winner of the sculpture competition for the Dante Alighieri – 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award, Milan
- Matrices – Microfusions for future installations, educational project BUENA ONDA
– San Vigilio Castle, Bergamo
– Cividini Museum in the Antica Zecca, Bergamo
- Permanent installation of a bronze work, Sculpture park, Tra i rami dell’arte, Tarquinia
- The Tao-Etruscan writing, MACRO ASILO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Rome
- Celestial secrets, Tao – Etruscan writing, Contemporary day AMACI, park of monza, Monza
- Fair Stainless Steel World 2019 – Exhibition & Congress Centre (MECC), Maastricht
2018
- 35th International Snow Sculpture Competition, Valloire (FR)
- Arte Genova 2018, Genoa Fair 15th, Genoa
- We Are Drops (show photography on the water), Space Loc, capo dell’orlando, Milan
- Three trainings, the permanent collection at the MAAM Museo dell’altro e dell’altrove di Metropoliz, Rome
- On the island of PENELOPE, Fourteenth Day of the Contemporary AMACI, Monza
- Milano Scultura Edition 2018, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan
- “What is a cistern for an artist?”, Arta da Mangiare, Milan Water District, Milan
2017
- Olio Officina Festival, Palazzo delle Stelline, Milan
- My smile, Darwin Day 2017, Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, Milan
- Non one Excluded (Paths of intervention in the fight against gender violence), Cagliari
- Academy open day 2017, Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, Milan
- Space LIANG AMY_D Gallery, AMY D Art Space, Milan (personal exhibition)
- Composed, Public Gardens CARTEC Teatro Massimo, Cagliari
- Pure Creative Moments of the Wanderers, “old wash-house”, Tarquinia
- Olio d’Artista, Castle Normanno Svevo, Mesagne (BR)
- ANIMANTI, Space E_Emme, Cagliari
- Olio d’Artista, palazzo tupputi – city of Bisceglie, Milan
2016
- Sculptures for Muggiò for the 18th stage of the Giro d’Italia, Workshop with the young artists of Brera, City of Muggiò
- Walking & Art, Municipality of Camo, Camo
- Competition “Brera meets Biccoca”, project for Medal, Foundry Techniques
- Traveling exhibition – Tavor Art Mobile Ruote, Cagliari
- Moving Languages, Casa Melis, Capoterra
- Eudaimoìa, Installations, Botanical Park, Calolziocorte (Lc)
- Wounds and Future – Cagliari against violence, Municipal Library of Pirri, Cagliari
2015
Painting Competition “Tavola del vivere, del convivere”, Palazzo Bovara, Milan