Hi,guys....

Lingxi Zhou is a Chinese oil painter currently based in Chicago. She is pursuing her studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with a focus on painting and visual culture. Her practice centers on objects, texture, and the emotional charge of material culture. Working primarily with oil paint on canvas and wood panel, Zhou creates carefully composed images that explore desire, memory, consumer culture, and visual seduction.

Her work is informed by fashion, particularly its relationship to aspiration, surface, and display. She is interested in how objects such as glassware, crystal, decorative interiors, and luxury-coded materials can carry meanings beyond their practical function. Through close attention to detail, reflection, and atmosphere, Zhou transforms objects into carriers of fantasy, longing, and cultural meaning.

Situated between art and fashion, her paintings reflect on how beauty and material desire shape contemporary perception. Her recent works extend these interests into the atmosphere of jazz bars and cocktail lounges, where glassware, crystal chandeliers, whiskey bottles, and reflective surfaces become visual traces of music, nightlife, and memory.

EducationSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Bachelor of Fine Arts Candidate, Painting
Graduation: May 2027

Projects Sticker Series, 2024
Developed an oil painting series based on the childhood habit of collecting stickers. Using a collage-like approach, the series enlarges different forms of stickers and examines their material qualities, surfaces, and visual memories.

Behind the Curtain Series, 2024
Created a series of oil paintings exploring staged space, hidden narratives, and the tension between what is visible and what remains concealed.

Ceramic Series, 2025
Created an oil painting series composed of various ceramic objects. The series presents strange yet playful scenes, using ceramic forms to build a narrative world that feels both whimsical and unsettling.

Crystal Glass Series, 2026
Developed a series of oil paintings focused on the idealized qualities of objects and the desires they carry. Through crystal glasses, reflective surfaces, and polished forms, the series explores material longing, beauty, and visual seduction.