Meet Angie Zou | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Angie Zou and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Angie, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Security is a false god. I try to make decisions intuitively now and based on what I think aligns with my personal value system. I try to make the healthiest decisions for myself, my artistic practice, and my community regardless of the risk attached to it (as long as it’s not clearly going beyond my physical or financial capacity). Overall, I invite fear and risk in my life and practice and see it as a healthy sign of growth.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m still in the process of defining what my art is (I’m lost) and I’m not sure that I ever want that process of “figuring it out” to stop (I love being lost). I love art for the FREEDOM it gives me and the relationships I make through it. In the last few years, I was very much drawn to making work inspired by the trends in both feminist contemporary painting and editorial illustration, borrowing techniques from airbrush artists, 3D digital media artists, and also anime. I’ve just started pursuing my MFA at Rhode Island School of Design. Taking some space from the fast paced editorial and art world in New York has given me a chance to consider the intrinsic motivations for my art— instead of purely focusing on the aesthetic qualities of making.

Coming from a Hmong and Chinese background and also a family that is polygynous, I’ve spent over a decade analyzing my cultural background and social structures. Naturally, I’m interested in themes that relate to the Asian woman, Hmong culture, intersectional identity, and unconventional family structures. Spirituality (not religion) has been an important pillar in my life for most of my 20s and is always what I come back to to ground me. I draw a lot of power through spiritual practices (including new age, Buddhist, and those past down from my Hmong heritage) and I’m primarily interested in communicating this experience, magic, and space into my work. I don’t know if I have much control over what I make- it feels like more of a current that flows through me and sometimes sends me a lot and sometimes sends nothing at all.

It’s an exciting and frightening path to be on, for sure. I work over 70 hours a week split between school, work, and my personal practice, and I am also always thinking about my finances, but it’s worth it. I feel so invigorated when I’m making freely, exploring new mediums, techniques, ideas, and meeting like-minded, curious, weird, and hungry individuals. I love it. I’m SO lucky I have the opportunity to pursue this path and to keep learning and challenging myself. I wouldn’t trade it for anything more “stable” for stability sake.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m not sure if we’re talking about New York City or Providence… but since I just moved to Providence, I’ll speak about New York. I’ve lived in Brooklyn for 6 years and some of my favorite spots are: the Metrograph in LES for films and drinks, Syndicated for films again, Antidote in Williamsburg for amazing drinks and Chinese food, Minca in East Village for ramen, the MoMa and New Museum for art (obviously), galleries in LES and Chinatown for emerging artist’s work, Elsewhere and the Knockdown center for music/shows, and Stella Dallas and all the Japanese secondhand shops in Williamsburg for vintage finds.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Outcast Studios was started by a few of my good friends, James Bee (Photographer) and Lisa Liu (Agent/Producer). Outcast came about during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and you can imagine how difficult it must have been to start an artist production agency at this time. It took an incredible amount of hard work, courage, determination, humility, and faith in one another to build this community and business. I was at a really low point in my artistic practice and my friends (Outcast) never gave up on me, continued to believe in me, encourage me, and exemplified to me, through their personal success, what I needed to step up to. The culture of Outcast is one that is defined by love, growth, inclusivity, and honesty. I’m so grateful for this support network and for this family that continues to support me, challenge me, and motivate me even while I’m away exploring my personal practice at RISD.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsangiezou/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angiezou/