RUNO B

张晓东

(born 1992 in China) currently lives and works between Venice, Italy, and Jingdezhen, China.

Runo B has always considered himself a painter. For him, painting is not a medium but a way of observing reality, organizing experience, and understanding the world—one that extends into other materials such as ceramics and works on paper.

His practice engages with the condition of ordinary people in contemporary society, drawing on real social experiences ranging from the pandemic to urban labor and the platform economy. Yet his work does not represent these events directly; instead, it continually transforms and recombines figures, animals, and everyday objects within the painting, generating open and fluid relationships between images. Having lived between China and Europe for an extended period, he has developed a way of seeing shaped by continual migration—one attentive to shared human experiences that move beyond the boundaries of culture and identity.

His works have been exhibited and collected by institutions including the 18th Rome Quadriennale, the Venice Biennale Archive, Palazzo Madama in Turin, the Naples National Archives, the By Art Matters Museum, Materia Gallery (Rome), Tommaso Calabro Gallery (Milan), Galerie Italienne (Paris), Studio la città Gallery (Verona), Marguo Gallery (Paris), among others.

Solo Shows

RIDING WITH THE WILD
curated by Luca Massimo Barbero
Ooeli complex, Hang Zhou, China
2025

CLIFFHANGER
curated by Ornella Paglialonga
Matèria Gallery, Rome, Italy
2023

FLY ME HOME project
Qiansheng Chinese Restaurant, Venice-Mestre, Italy
2022

ASS OF GOD
PATA Gallery, Shanghai, China
2021

Selected Group shows, Residencies and Prizes

FANTASTICA. the 18th Art Quadriennale (18ª Quadriennale d’arte)
curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, Francesco Bonami, Emanuela Mazzonis di Pralafera, Francesco Stocchi, and Alessandra Troncone
Palazzo delle Esposizioni Roma, Rome, Italy
2025

WIND IS IN NO RUSH
Studio la città Gallery, Verona, Italy
2025

CROSSING
curated by Cristina Beltrami
Palazzo Madama, Turin, Italy
2024

TORN CURTAIN buongiorno, buonasera
curated by Luca Massimo Barbero e Hélène de Franchis
Studio la città Gallery, Verona, Italy
2024

BY ART MATTERS Residency
BY ART MATTERS Museum, Hang Zhou, China
2023

VENICE TIME CASE
Galerie Italienne, Paris, France
2023

The Hearing Trumpet PART II
Galerie Marguo, Paris, France
2022

The Loading
The Balcony, The Hague, Netherlands
2022

Education

BA
Visual Arts, Fine Arts Academy of Bologna, IT
2020

MA
Visual Arts, Fine Arts Academy of Venice, IT
2017

Runo B

Solos and Projects