Yiqun Zhou is a proud RISD Graduate and passionate wanderer, who is currently working as an educator in Shanghai.

“My book Super Power Comedian Interviewing Another Super Power Comedian won the iJungle Illustration Merit Award 2020 in Comics Category. My book Read From the Last Page won Honorable Mention in booking making in 6th RISD Library Artist Book Award. I organized, as well as designed the graphics for, the Disco Elysium Fan Convention (a convention commemorating the game Disco Elysium, with booths for fan arts, lectures, video shows, on site installations and band performances) in Shanghai 2021. Currently, I’m working on making a gallery show theme on fan culture in Nicolas Cage movies. My curator and I are trying to put a subculture (doujin) in an art gallery with all the formality (with public education projects, collector preview, etc.).

“I grew up in a vibrant fan culture where roaming on the internet for fan arts was like going to Louvre — so much to see, so many talents and it’s free. A huge part of me was shaped by that culture. It gave me leeway to interact with literature, media and provided me encounters with awesome people. I was so influenced by how fan culture interprets existing works that some of those expressions were permanently kneaded into my art language. A lot of upcoming artists amongst my peer came from the same root. But for commercial or career-wise reasons, they shifted away from that subculture. Thousands of specific reasons could be given and I wouldn’t argue with any one of them, but I just think if two third of my life (and many others) has been spent on that culture there must be something worth digging into and to be considered ‘serious’ art. Most of my comics dealt with this issue, either directly or indirectly (besides the ones that are purely playing with panels and shapes). I like the way they encased the awkwardness of the situation and the fact that they are a bit cringy to read.”