Yuge Zhou (周雨歌) 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. Through intimate documentation and video collage, she seeks to reveal broader truths about who we are and what it means to cohabit as a fractured collective.
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 reform, 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 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, most recently 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.
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周雨歌 (Yuge Zhou) 是一位出生于中国、现居芝加哥的视频艺术家和电影创作者。她的作品探讨扎根感、共存以及城市空间中的社会互动 — 这些空间是我们共同梦想的场所。通过细腻的记录与视频拼贴，她试图揭示关于我们自身和人性的更广泛的真相，以及作为一个分裂的集体共同栖居意味着什么。
周雨歌儿时是家喻户晓的神话儿童电视剧《小龙人》的主唱歌手。她在中国经济改革的第二阶段于北京长大，亲历了大规模的人口流动，家乡的扩张和全球化浪潮——这些经历持续塑造着她对跨文化与跨地域的迁徙与归属的思考。大约十六年前，她来到美国攻读计算机科学硕士学位，随后转向影像与视频装置领域。并在芝加哥艺术学院取得艺术硕士 (MFA) 学位。
雨歌曾在国内外知名艺术和公共场馆展出，包括纽约时代广场的“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)。她同时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。
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