Kelly Zou is an interdisciplinary visual artist based in Edinburgh. She graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2021 and is an alumna of the Royal Drawing School. Her practice is rooted in drawing and painting, bringing together historical research, personal memory and cross-cultural narratives to explore themes of place, identity and belonging.

 

Born in China, Kelly worked as a programmer before moving to Scotland to pursue art. Her work reflects experiences of migration, displacement and nostalgia, exploring the relationship between inner experience and the external world. Working across drawing, painting and writing, she develops layered compositions and large-scale scroll installations through an intuitive process shaped by memory, movement and emotion. These forms reflect the accumulation, fragmentation and continual reconstruction of lived experience.

 

Kelly has undertaken artist residencies at Dumfries House (Royal Drawing School), ANGUSalive Museums & Galleries, Leith School of Art and the Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Her recent projects include participation in Heartland, an upcoming group exhibition at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, as well as commissions for Creative Balance and the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival.

 

Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Royal Scottish Academy, RBSA Gallery, the Meffan Museum & Art Gallery and the Hou Beiren Art Museum.

 

She is a recipient of the City of Edinburgh Council’s Diversity and Inclusion Fund Bursary Award, the Freelands Foundation Artist Bursary, the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust Travel Grant and the Visual Artist and Craft Maker Award (VACMA).

 

Alongside her studio practice, Kelly works across illustration, design and community arts. She runs an independent design brand featuring her distinctive cat characters and facilitates drawing and creative workshops for a range of communities, including Parkinson’s UK and Youth Scotland.