ZHANG FUMING
Artist-Printmaker | Contemporary Printmaking Practice

Traces of Presence brings together a decade of Zhang Fuming’s woodcut practice, presenting both prints and the carved blocks that produced them. Traditionally, the block is seen only as a tool, its purpose limited to the transfer of ink onto paper. In this exhibition, the block is given equal attention, revealed as a work that holds the weight of labour, the resistance of the material, and the passage of time.
 

Rather than organising the works chronologically, Fuming approached the installation in an open and intuitive manner. Prints were pinned directly to the wall, blocks leaned against it, and arrangements shifted until a loose narrative began to emerge. The exhibition reflects this process of searching. It resists a single story and instead allows fragments from across different years to come together, carrying echoes of everyday life, endurance, and aspiration.
 

The exhibition foregrounds the materiality of woodcut, where carved textures record not just images but the persistence of making. Each cut registers presence, while each block bears the traces of work that accumulates over time. Traces of Presence invites viewers to slow down and consider how meaning is formed through this negotiation between material, process, and the will of the artist.