ZHOU B ART CENTER

Founded in 2004 by the internationally acclaimed Zhou Brothers, Zhou B Art Center was created as a site of exchange between local artists and the global art community while promoting the contemporary convergence of Eastern and Western visuality in the United States. Located in Chicago’s historic Bridgeport neighborhood, the Zhou B Art Center’s mission is to engage cultural dialogue through contemporary art exhibitions and programming with an international scope.

The Zhou B Art Center provides galleries, studio spaces, and a collaborative environment to a thriving community of talented artists and curators. The purpose of the Zhou B Art Center is to nurture the creativity and growth of its nearly 50 resident artists while providing groundbreaking exhibitions open to the public. On the Third Friday of each month, the center hosts a free exhibition and open studio event where locals can explore the main galleries as well as resident artists’ studios. This event is the perfect opportunity for Chicagoans and tourists alike to support the numerous artists involved with the Zhou B Art Center.
On Dec 7th, 2017, Zhou B Art Center was featured in the New York Times as one of the “Five Places to Go in Chicago”.

This warehouse has served as an early neighborhood arts hub. The Chinese contemporary painter brothers ShanZuo and DaHuang Zhoushi claimed the space for artists in 2004. It features an expansive ground-floor gallery of the brothers’ bold, abstract canvases and studios on upper floors.
On Dec 8th, 2017, BuzzFeed rated Zhou B Art Center as the #1 figurative art gallery in the US 2017.

“The Zhou B Art Center actually houses several galleries within what used to be the Spiegel Catalog Building. Since 2013, PoetsArtists has been exhibiting group shows on various floors of the building primarily the second level which has 10,000 square feet gallery space. The purpose of the Zhou B Art Center is to nurture the creativity and growth of its nearly 50 resident artists while providing groundbreaking exhibitions open to the public. The also recently built a Center in Beijing. The first floor primarily exhibits the works of the Internationally acclaimed artists, the Zhou Brothers.”
In 2015, the Zhou Brothers returned to their homeland homeland China which they parted over 40 years ago and established a new studio in Beijing. This new studio will become the base camp of their life and work. The astonishing interior design of the studio is another creation of their wild imaginations.

At the moment, the Zhou Brothers are building a Zhou Brother International Art Center in the Dazhalan district, center Beijing.Dazhalan, or colloquially Dashilar, which means “Big Stone Fence”, is a famous historical and cultural zone in the center of Beijing, China. It referred to several major business streets outside Qianmen.

For centuries, the traditional commercial street Dazhalan has held quite a few Lao Zihaos ( historical brand-name store) that are well known nationally. There was a saying in Beijing, “Wear the hats of Ma Ju Yuan, stand in the shoes of Nei Lian Sheng, wear the clothes of Ba Da Xiang, and take the money of Si Da Heng Banks.” Those mentioned are all famous brand-name stores located in Da zhalan that are taken as the symbol of wealth.

Dazhalan was also the entertainment center of Beijing, besides being the historical commercial center. There once were five grand Beijing opera houses in this area. The first movie theatre in Beijing, Daguan Lou, also situated there.​
In 2011, the government of Beijing started a revitalization effort to restore and promote Dazhalan’s status as the historical and cultural center of the capital. The new Zhou B International Art Center in Beijing, opening soon, will be one of the highlights of the effort, together with the new Sotheby’s headquarter and a new POLY Auction house Plaza.

The internationally acclaimed Zhou Brothers, best know for being the most famous Chinese American Contemporary artists, are bringing their successful art center model to Kansas City, MO. The original Zhou B Art Center, founded in 2004 in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago, has been a seminal part of the vibrant creative culture developing in Chicago’s South Side. Housed in a renovated manufacturing loft in the Historic Original East Manufacturing District, in the fourteen years since its inception the original Zhou B Art Center has established itself as top tier
exhibition recognized both the national and international level due in large part to the dynamic influence of the Zhou Brothers and their philosophy of “feeling is liberty”. The newest Zhou B Art Center, a sister space to the Chicago art center, will be activated by the same ethos of free expression and serve as a hub of artistic and creative pursuits connecting the historic Jazz District with the burgeoning Crossroads Art District to the east in a mission to revitalize the area through art and commerce. Housed in the former Attucks Elementary school building, the new Zhou B Art Center boasts fifty thousand square feet of exhibition space and art studios that will become a vital and enduring part of Kansas City, MO art scene.​
Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri, United States, and the 37th largest city by population in the United States. It is the central city of the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Kansas–Missouri border.

Kansas City is known for its long tradition of jazz music and culture; its notable museums includes the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the World War One museum, and various museums and establishments on the 18th and Vine district.​

8th and Vine in Kansas City is internationally recognized as one of the cradles of jazz music and a historic hub of African-American businesses. Today, the district includes the Mutual Musicians Foundation, the Gem Theater, the long-time offices of African-American newspaper The Call, the Blue Room jazz club, the American Jazz Museum, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Smaxx Restaurant, restaurant inside the Juke House and Blues Club, and several apartments and condos.
Following the models of the Zhou B Art Centers in Chicago and Beijing, the majority of space on each floor will be allocated for a combination of individual artists’ studios as well as formal exhibition space for rotating exhibitions, providing work space to artists as well as an opportunity to exhibit local, national and international artists. The remainder will be allocated to various office space for Zhou B and its relevant partner operations. The first floor will include space for a coffee shop, which enhances the communal aspect of this multi-faceted and interdisciplinary arts building by ensuring a central lounge-like area as another social aspect and public draw. This combination of publicly accessible fine art exhibition
space, coffee house area, individual artist studios, music and dance studios and relevant arts partner organizations is intended to promote a successful rehabilitation of the Attucks School, reinvigorating its beautiful existing architecture and providing a thriving, vibrant, and engaging center for the arts in Kansas City.​​