Yuanyuan Zhou
Artez,Arnhem
Yuanyuan Zhou (b.1994, China) is a visual artist whose practice explores the psychological landscapes shaped by memory, discipline, and vulnerability.
Drawing on childhood memories and observed situations, Yuanyuan’s meticulous works create environments that are mildly surreal and subtly violent. Through paintings, sculptures, and performances, she conveys a sense of unreachable frustration—like a lucid dream trapped in a stalemate, where objects self-defeat in pursuit of victory. She delights in manipulating rigidity with cold humor and blurs the boundary between rules and freedom. Having grown up under rigorous surveillance and the dislocation of family life, she expresses her anxiety through her works. By placing works on a stage-as-playfield, she exposes the complexity of resisting conventional systems while reflecting on the harsh realities of struggle.
Zhou is the winner of the Current Current Award 2026, an annual award presented to a promising graduate of ArtEZ Academy of Art & Design Arnhem.
