Zoë Winters is a Vancouver-based American artist primarily working in painting and drawing, with additional practices in ceramics and animation. Raised in the Pacific Northwest, Winters developed an early sensitivity to atmosphere through the region’s mountains, forests, and coastal light, alongside formative exposure to video games and animated imagery. These influences continue to inform her creation of contemplative worlds inhabited by gentle, imagined presences.

Winters received a BFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of Washington, with a minor in Japanese Language and Culture. Influenced by Japanese aesthetics and Shinto thought, her work explores softened forms, compressed value relationships, and delicately layered color through an intuitive and meditative approach to image-making. Rooted in rigorous drawing training, her practice often centers on emotional atmosphere, memory, and the quiet emotional presence of imagined characters within natural environments.

While studying game design during university, Winters also developed skills in animation, later incorporating immersive installations into her exhibitions as extensions of her painted worlds. An internship at Gagosian in Los Angeles further shaped her commitment to painting and expanded her understanding of exhibition-making and contemporary art contexts.

Winters’ work has been exhibited internationally, including in Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, and Dubai, with animated works additionally presented in Times Square. Through painting, drawing, sculpture, and animation, she creates contemplative, slowly unfolding spaces that encourage sustained looking. Her work explores the atmospheric and psychological potential of color, using softened imagery and gentle figures to evoke warmth, vulnerability, and connection.

Education

University of Washington, Seattle, WA
BFA, Drawing and Painting
Minor in Japanese Language and Culture, 2023

Solo Exhibitions

Until it Becomes Clear, FOIL Gallery, Montreal, QC, 2026

Selected Exhibitions

NFT NYC, Times Square Billboard, New York, NY, 2024
Foreign Family Collective, New York, NY, 2023
Metacon Dubai, Dubai, UAE, 2022
Harvard Blockchain Week, Cambridge, MA, 2022
Portion.io Immersive Exhibition, New York, NY, 2022
Zoe Winters x DeCoosey, Rarible NFT LA, Los Angeles, CA, 2022

Internships

Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2019

Collaborations

Topps Project70 — Hideki Matsui “Godzilla” Baseball Card Illustration, 2021

Press

Finer Objects in Life, “Zoë Winters Takes Over the Walls of FOIL Gallery This March,” 2026
SHY World, “SHY Girl ~ Zoë Winters, My Spring Artist Discovery w the Most Refreshing Creations,” 2026
The Daily UW, “Into the Crypto with Zoë Winters,” 2021