ZHOU Xiaoping

Zhou Xiaoping is a Melbourne-based artist, born and educated in China. Since 1988 he has been actively engaged with Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land and the Kimberley.

He has created a unique artistic style by incorporating his new Aboriginal experiences into the traditional Chinese classic painting, learnt in China. Chinese and Aboriginal arts and cultures meet in his artworks, generating a new aesthetic and telling his story.

Zhou's collaboration with the late Jimmy Pike resulted in the first exhibition of Aboriginal art work in China in 1996, at Hefei Jiuliumi Art Museum, Hefei. The exhibition went on to be shown at the National Gallery of China in 1999.

Zhou collaborative exhibition with Johnny Bulunbulun, Trepang, China & the story of Macassan – Aboriginal trade, held both at The Capital Museum in Beijing and the Melbourne Museum in Australia in 2011.

In 2014 Zhou was invited by the Australian Embassy in Paris to exhibit his work.

The award-winning documentary film Ochre and Ink was broadcast on ABC1 in 2012.

Zhou published two Chinese language books on his experiences with Aboriginal communities.

He has worked on a mural project at Mutitjulu in Central Australia. In 2014 he was invited as artist in residence at the University of Polynesia, French and Museum of Tahiti and its Islands.

More recently Zhou has toured the exhibition Dialogues with The Dreaming ------ the art of Zhou Xiaoping in Australia throughout China in 2017, where he was able to share the stories of Aboriginal culture through his personal experience as an Chinese Australian artist. The unique stories, articulated through his high quality artwork, has attracted wide media coverage reaching a broad audience at home and internationally. He continues to transmit stories and experiences through his art, curating an exhibition at the National Museum of Australia in 2025, Our Story: Aboriginal Chinese People in Australia.