Hi, I’m Julian Zheng — an installation artist, object maker, and emerging curator working with paper-based sculpture, soft materials, and spatial storytelling.

My practice explores themes of absence, care, memory, and identity through immersive environments and tactile objects. Rooted in my personal background and the cultural context of China’s “left-behind children” generation, I investigate how emotional experiences can be translated into physical form.

Alongside my installation practice, I have a strong foundation in visual communication, with studies in graphic design, illustration, exhibition layout, and collaborative production at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

PaprBby is my original character and evolving emotional universe. Inspired by the idea of a “paper baby,” PaprBby carries a bunny-pig comfort toy as an emotional substitute — a symbolic companion representing protection, attachment, and the search for belonging. Through this character and its surrounding world, I create spaces where invisible emotions become tactile, shared, and seen.

PaprBby builds an emotional world of healing, memory, and belonging through tactile storytelling and spatial experience. Rooted in the idea of the “little guardian of home,” the project explores how soft materials can carry emotional weight, how objects can speak for unspoken feelings, and how space can transform experiences of absence, care, and identity into physical encounters.

Through paper-based sculpture, installation, and character-driven narratives, PaprBby creates emotional substitutes and comforting companions that reconnect audiences with vulnerability, protection, and the quiet desire for home.