Joy Zhou
practices as an artist, designer and producer based in Naarm/Melbourne. Their practice engages the affective interior and exterior conditions, unfolds experiences in everyday life with temporary interventions that queer the norms, and aims to amplify overlooked existences.Joy's creative process is responsive to existing conditions. They responds to space with embodied knowledge and corresponding power dynamics that are embedded in their intersectional perspectives. In this practice, space is reframed through relationships. There is not one fixed medium they work with, but responding to the context, stretching across sonic, graphic, textual, performative, spatial, and socially-engaged practices.
Since 2021, Joy exhibited and produced solo and collaborative projects with Abbotsford Convent, Blindside, the City of Melbourne, the City of Yarra, Liquid Architecture, MPavilion, RMIT Culture, Testing Grounds and West Space. Joy is nominated as one of four finalists for the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture 2023.
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Visit Joy's interior practice manifesto here.
Education
2022-2019, Bachelor of Interior Design (Hons), RMIT University2019, Theatre and Screen Design Study Abroad, UAL
Solo Projects
2024, we sit comfortably in silence together, West Space2024, Borrow a Brick for Contact Listening, public art, Abbotsford Convent x Melbourne Fringe
2022, A Creek Story, Disclaimer, Liquid Architecture
2022, Making of the super soft activist, participatory artwork, Creative Social, RMIT Creative Communities
2022, A Creek Chat, public art, Melbourne CBD
Selected Group Projects
2024, co-worm-ing, group exhibition, Future Anterior, Blindside X PHOTO242023, Broken Surface, group exhibition, Close Proximity, RMIT First Site Gallery
2023, co-worm-ing, group exhibition, Public Art Park 23, Testing Grounds
2023, I’m pretty sure I am neurodivergent and that’s what this show is about but also It’s not for sure yet because I’ve been on this psychiatrist waitlist for 8 months, group exhibition, Schoolhouse Studios
2022, MANY FESTO, graduate exhibition, INDEX, RMIT Design Hub Gallery
2022, THE DE(SIGNS), group exhibition, Public Art Park 22, Testing Grounds
2022, Memory Trade at Platform Arts, group exhibition, After Walter Hopps, Platform Arts
Curatorial Projects
2024, who ate the archive?, co-produer, Future Anterior, Blindside X PHOTO242024, Storytime: Breathing with Queer Ghost, co-curator, MPavilion
2024, Mapping with Touch, co-curator, MPavilion
2022, Mindful Art Project, co-curator, Big Anxiety Festival, RMIT Gallery
2019, Snatches, set designer, RMIT Kaleide Theatre, Melbourne Fringe Festival
2019, Interior Cities, choreography assistant, Interior Design 80-years Activation, The Capitol
Awards
2024, Winner, Best Words & Ideas, Melbourne Fringe2024, Finalist, Best Work By An Emerging Artist, Melbourne Fringe
2024, Finalist, Spirit of the Fringe, Melbourne Fringe
2023, Finalist, Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture
Grants/Residencies
2025, Annual Art Residencies, City of Melbourne2024, Emerging Writers Program, Seventh Gallery
2023, M_Curators, MPavilion
2023, RMIT Graduate Residency, RMIT Culture
2023, Quarry Pedagogies
2022, City Activation Grants Program, City of Melbourne & Victoria Government
2021, Test Sites Round 2, Testing Grounds & City of Melbourne
Writings
2024, home as Home, Seventh Gallery2023, Limit(ology), Kerb Journal 31
2022, A Creek Story, Disclaimer, Liquid Architecture
Speaking Apperances
2024, Slience Radio, B-side Radio2024, on the table, Dance House
2023, Place as Protagonist, Urban Design Forum, MPavilion
2023, INTERR(I)OR, RMIT Interior Design lecture
2022, Liquid Architecture podcast
Other Experiences
2025-2023, Public Program Coordinator, Trocadero Projects2025-2022, Volunteer, Westspace
2022, Exhibition Design Committee, INDEX
2022, SSCC Chair, RMIT Student Staff Consultative Committee
2021-2018, Design Assistant, First Education & Technology Group
2021, President, The Capitol Club
2021, Secretary, Student Association of Interior Design S.IDA
download artist CV.pdf