Zoe Zhang

I have been an art kid for as long as I can remember, and I am very lucky to have been blessed with keen eyes on the lookout for beauty. Growing up in Beijing, like many of my peers, I fell deeply in love with the art of animation —especially anime. My friends and I loved anime works as they didn’t shy away from exploring more mature themes, which was quite distinctive from other, more sheltered, forms of entertainment readily available to us at the time. I found myself detached from class, hiding my pens and paper behind my forearm, sketching away at some girl with an eye patch and robot arms. I knew my friends were going to love it when I showed them my masterpiece during recess. This was one of the first times I had consciously incorporated the joys of kinship in my making, and I have whole-heartedly loved sharing my art with those around me ever since. Revealing my art felt like removing a small piece of being from my body and sharing that rawness with those I trusted and adored the most. For Exhibit B, I have submitted pieces I created and curated as a part of classes at the Art & Design School. Whether the piece is a hanger or a series of digital illustrations, my classmates have helped me curate these works. This collection progresses through these stages of making, and correction, and therefore snowballs through the imagination and feedback of my peers who were with me when I made this art. As art students, we are encouraged to create work that bleeds into one another’s, and to push one another further. I love this about art school and community, and in a way, this collecting of one another’s wisdom is like the act of respirating, taking in creation, perspective and feedback, and breathing out the unique creation at the core of my being.