Zhou Xiaoping is a Melbourne-based artist and curator, born and educated in China. Since 1988 he has been actively engaged with Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land and the Kimberley.
He has created a unique artistic style by incorporating his new Aboriginal experiences into the traditional Chinese classic painting that he had learnt in China. Chinese and Aboriginal arts and cultures meet in his artworks, generating a new aesthetic while telling his story in Australia.
Xiaoping's collaboration with the late Jimmy Pike resulted in the first exhibition of Aboriginal art work at Hefei Jiuliumi Art Museum, Hefei, China in 1996, and then held at the National Gallery of China in 1999.
He was the driving force behind the ten-year “Trepang: China and the Story of Macassan--Aboriginal Trade” project from 2002 to 2011, in collaboration with Professor Marcia Langton, Foundation Chair in Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, which led to several exhibitions and a significant publication.
Xiaoping was the principal artist in “Trepang: China & the Story of Macassan – Aboriginal Trade”, both at The Capital Museum in Beijing and the Melbourne Museum in Australia in 2011.
The international award-winning documentary film “Ochre and Ink” was broadcast on ABC1 Australia, in 2012.
In 2014, Xiaoping was invited by the Australian Embassy in Paris to open his solo show at the Embassy.
In 2017 Xiaoping was awarded the Australia China Council grant to tour his solo exhibition “Dialogues with The Dreaming – the art of Zhou Xiaoping in Australia” at Today Art Museum (Beijing), Museum of Contemporary Art Chengdu, Modern Art Museum Jiangsu and the Shenzhen Art Museum, in China.
In 2020 Xiaoping has four exhibitions. The works are all located in Australia, at Museum of Chinese Australian History (Melbourne) ，ACIAC of Western Sydney University (Sydney), Live in Art (Sydney) and the ACAE Gallery (Melbourne).
Xiaoping has held 54 solo exhibitions worldwide, and has published two Chinese language books on his experiences with Aboriginal communities. He has worked on a mural project at Mutitjulu in Central Australia. In 2014 he was invited to undertake a residency at the University of French Polynesia and Museum of Tahiti and its Islands.
In 2019 he was Honorary Research Fellow, Asia Institute University of Melbourne, Australia.
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