January 02, 2026
Yennie Zhou’s young life informs her artistic expression today as a Sacramento creative
SN&R
By: Rachel Leibrock
When Yennie Zhou says she doesn’t believe in talent, just hard work and skill, it’s not self-deprecation, she’s drawing on a lifetime shaped by resourcefulness and the ability to create art from almost anything, including trash.
“Everybody can design something — it’s not that hard,” Zhou explains during a recent tour of her Old Sacramento studio, Yennie Zhou Designs. “It’s like my drawings that I made when I was little — they looked so ugly, but while some people stop [practicing], I just continue.” The compact, airy studio is located next door to Atrium, a shop that sells local goods, including a wood clock Zhou upcycled out of a discarded SMUD cable spool that once held powerlines.
Zhou’s work is an exploration of artistic reincarnation. There is an army of towering, armless “alien” women formed from recycled tomato cages, swathes of canvas drop clothes, cement and plaster. The cadre, glistening with a patina-tinged gold finish, appeared at the 2024 Sacramento Fashion Week Hair & Fashion Battle. There are elaborate, gold headdresses crafted from plastic piping, zip ties, feathers and paper, all designed to float up around the heads of models for a Crocker Museum ArtMix event.
Outside the studio, there’s a 200-pound concrete table Zhou refashioned from another, much bigger, SMUD spool. There’s also the “Pioneer Recycle Wagon” she co-created with artists Shira Lane and JD Odbert. The sculpture was funded via a grant from Burners Without Borders, a community leadership program that’s part of the Burning Man Project. Constructed from a collection of rusty found metal pieces, including pulleys and wheels: It’s intended as a recyclables drop-off point. While the repurposed materials may be utilitarian, the overall effect is ethereal and dramatic — and a showy study in contrast from a woman who just likes to keep her hands moving.