Born in Gansu Province, People's Republic of China, Zhang Hongtu graduated from the Central Academy of Arts in Beijing. In 1982, he moved to New York and attended the Arts Student League. Zhang has been the recipient of artist grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.

Creator of paintings depicting Chinese traditional shanshui (mountain-water) landscape painting which are imbued with a Western palette and a melange of hues, Zhang participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in the 1980s and 90s exhibiting ground-breaking paintings and installations marking the introduction and presentation of Chinese contemporary art across the globe. Such venues included Blum Helman Gallery, the New Museum, Artists Space, and P.S. I. in New York; the Cleveland Museum of Art; and Purdue University (IN); as well as Galerie + Edition CAOC (Berlin); and the Fifth Biennial of Havana, Cuba.

Admiringly referred to as Zhang Laoshe (teacher), he has blazed the trail for many succeeding generations of Mainland Chinese artists to relocate and exhibit in the West. His work is in the collections of the National Museum of Art in Beijing, the World Bank, the New Museum and the Bronx Museum of Art.

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