By: Rebecca Zhang
California-based multimedia artist Zoe Ze Zhou has built a reputation for navigating two demanding creative worlds: fine art and cinematic prop design. Trained in sculpture, installation, and bio-art, Zhou’s work often explores the interconnectedness between humans, animals, and the natural world. But beyond gallery walls, her craftsmanship has found a second life in the film industry, where precision, narrative sensitivity, and technical ingenuity converge.
Zhou’s crossover into film is not a side project, it is an extension of her artistic language that has become an equally vital part of her career. Her ability to merge conceptual depth with functional design has made her one of the sought-after collaborators for productions requiring props that are both visually striking and narratively integral.
With an exhibition record that spans London, New York, and Los Angeles, and a growing list of high-profile film credits, Zoe Ze Zhou is carving out a place where the precision of cinematic illusion meets the depth of contemporary art. Her journey offers a glimpse into how artistic practice can adapt, evolve, and thrive across mediums, whether in the quiet of a gallery or under the heat of production lights.
As the invited artist, Zoe participated in the film Remains of Color. Illustrates the unique position she occupies between art and cinema. Invited by the production team, Zhou designed and fabricated an installation used in a key sequence, an object rooted in her sculptural practice but adapted to work within the constraints and visual language of film. The project’s success is reflected in its selection for the 2025 LA Shorts International Film Festival and its recognition as a semifinalist at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
That impact is evident in her collaborations with the streaming platform ReelShort, a significant force in serialized short-form dramas. Zhou was invited to create pivotal props for two of its productions: The Lost Son Returns as the Duke and King of Cooking: The Master Chef Returns. The former has already reached an astonishing 34.8 million views worldwide, placing Zhou’s work in front of an audience far beyond the traditional art world. While King of Cooking has yet to be released, the trust placed in her to deliver key set pieces for both series underscores her growing reputation across disciplines.
Photo Courtesy: Zoe Ze Zhou
In these projects, Zhou was not simply making background décor, she was tasked with designing and fabricating objects that had to integrate into the story’s visual identity seamlessly. For The Lost Son Returns as the Duke, this meant crafting intricate crucifixes with a good fit and finish, ensuring they appeared authentic on camera and aligned with the emotional tone of the narrative. For King of Cooking, her work involved both delicate, hand-crafted pieces and technically complex set props that pushed the boundaries of what could be built under production timelines.
The scale of her prop work often matches the ambition of her fine art. She has fabricated everything from lifelike newborn replicas and anatomical models to monumental sculptures like a six-foot-long bluefin tuna, as well as a ice mountain engineered to withstand prolonged shooting under hot studio lights without melting. These assignments, far from being routine builds, demand a mix of problem-solving, structural engineering, and fine detail work—qualities that stem directly from her years of sculptural practice.
Photo Courtesy: Zoe Ze Zhou
What sets Zhou apart is her ability to carry the conceptual weight of fine art into the functional demands of film. On set, her props must hold up not only to the scrutiny of high-definition cameras but also to the expectations of millions of viewers. In the gallery, her installations, often incorporating organic materials such as human hair, plants, or fungi, provoke reflection on human–non-human relationships and challenge anthropocentric thinking. In both contexts, the object is never just an object; it is part of a larger ecosystem of meaning.
“Props are like sculptures with a script,” Zhou explains. “They live inside a story, but they also need to stand up to the audience’s imagination.” That philosophy has allowed her to operate fluently across two industries that, while vastly different in process, share a common goal: creating experiences that feel real enough to believe, yet deep enough to remember.
With an exhibition record that spans London, New York, and Los Angeles—and a rapidly expanding portfolio of high-profile film collaborations—Zoe Ze Zhou is proving that the boundary between fine art and cinema is not a dividing line, but a fertile space for innovation. Whether under the quiet focus of a gallery spotlight or the intense glare of production lights, her work remains a testament to how artistic vision can adapt, evolve, and thrive across mediums.
