erika zhu
english, cantonese & mandarin
Illustrator
Erika Zhu grew up around the world and constantly moved across Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia. She developed a strong passion for people watching and enjoyed noticing the small idiosyncrasies of the mundane life of people around her. Stylistically, she likes to feature clear and strong compositions, bold silhouettes, and minimalistic but compelling storylines in her work. Put together, she hopes to reflect how even the ordinary can be beautiful and unique.
Erika is now based in Sydney, and works primarily in illustration, animation, and photography. Alongside a team of animators, she created stop-motion work for the UTS Data Arena ‘We Went There’, as well as a shortfilm adaptation of ‘Hope is an Inanimate Object’ for Spineless Wonders. Her latest work, ‘Al Nafs’ placed first in a creative collaboration project with Genesis Motors Australia
“I grew up in Hong Kong,” Erika explains, “and my first spoken language was Cantonese (and first written language, Chinese). So when my family moved to Australia when I was six, it created a huge impact on my childhood, especially my sense of belonging. I would like to create something that can help change the current landscape of Australian children’s literature - to increase diversity and bring a sense of home and comfort for multilingual children.”
