
Tianzhuo Chen is a contemporary artist born in Beijing, China. He produces performances, sculptures and video works, organises club and concert series with his label Asian Dope Boys, and designs fashion. In his work, Tianzhuo combines tradition and modernity, high culture and subculture. His visual language is colourful, grotesque, and sometimes verging on kitsch, directly referencing Asian spiritualism, Butoh dance, voguing, and LGBTIQ+ iconographies. He interweaves precisely written stories, thoughts, and political statements with ritualised happenings of self-empowerment that reference contemporary club and counterculture.
He has produced exhibitions and theatre works broadly within both Asia and Europe. Most recently, Tianzhuo realised the 12-hour performance TRANCE with an international ensemble of performers and musicians at Sonic Acts in Amsterdam. He graduated in Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins and Chelsea College in London, and has been living in Berlin since 2022.