Yuge Zhou is a Chinese-born, Chicago-based video artist and filmmaker whose work addresses rootedness, coexistence, and social encounters across urban spaces - the sites of our shared dreams. Throughout her practice, Yuge uses documentary observation, collage, and poetic intervention to reveal the unseen relationships between people, places, and the passage of time.
At the age of five, Yuge became a household name in China as the singer for several popular children’s TV series. Growing up in Beijing during the second stage of China’s economic reforms, she witnessed mass migration and the rapid expansion of her hometown — experiences that continue to shape her reflections on movement and belonging across cultures and geographies. Nearly two decades ago, she moved to the United States to study computer science at Syracuse and later transitioned to video art and film, earning her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in prominent art venues and public spaces, including a solo show at Today Art Museum in Beijing and across 95 billboards in New York City’s Times Square as part of the “Midnight Moment” program. Yuge’s practice has been featured in New York Magazine, Hyperallergic, and Frieze, and her works are held in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago) and the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation. She is the recipient of the 2024 Joyce Foundation Artadia Award and the 2021 Artist Fellowship Award in Media Arts from the Illinois Arts Council.
In addition to her art practice, she also directs and curates the 3300-square foot 150 Media Stream, a uniquely-structured public digital art installation in Chicago. In this capacity, she has worked with over fifty media artists and cultural institutions to create innovative programming that engages a cross section of diverse communities.
In Chinese, Yuge 雨歌 (pronounced: you-guh) means “rain song”, a name inspired by the rainy spring evening when she was born.
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周雨歌 (Yuge Zhou) 是一位出生于北京、现居芝加哥的视频艺术家和电影创作者。她的作品关注扎根感、共存，以及城市空间中的社会互动。在她的创作中，雨歌通过纪实观察、蒙太奇与诗意介入，揭示人与人、人与地方以及时间流逝之间那些不易察觉的关联。
雨歌成长于中国经济改革第二阶段，亲历人口流动、城市扩张与全球化进程。童年时期作为电视剧《小龙人》的主唱歌手的公共经验，与时代背景共同塑造了她对迁徙、跨文化身份与归属感的长期关注。雨歌曾在国内外知名艺术和公共场馆展出，包括北京今日美术馆的个展以及纽约时代广场95块电子屏幕上呈现的“午夜时刻”项目。她的作品被《纽约杂志》(New York Magazine)、《Hyperallergic》和《弗里兹》(Frieze) 等媒体专题报道，以及芝加哥当代摄影博物馆 (Museum of Contemporary Photography) 和卡尔与玛丽琳·托马基金会 (Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation) 等机构收藏。2024年，周雨歌荣获了乔伊斯基金会阿塔迪亚艺术大奖 (Joyce Foundation Artadia Award)。她拥有芝加哥艺术学院的艺术硕士以及雪城大学的理学硕士学位。
除了个人艺术创作外，她还担任芝加哥 150 Media Stream 的策展人——这是一个占地 3300 平方英尺、结构独特的公共数字艺术装置。在这一职务中，她与超过五十位新媒体艺术家及文化机构合作，策划创新项目，并于多元社区的观众群体互动。
Photo by DeShaun Craddock