Yong Zhou has devoted his whole life to art, having held solo and joint exhibitions all over the world. He won the "Excellence Award of the World Environmental Art Competition" issued by the United Nations for his "Silk Road Group Painting" in 1993 and also won numerous other world renowned awards. His artworks have been collected by the National Art Museum of China, the National Academy of Painting of China, the New Jersey State Museum of the United States, as well as private collectors in both USA and China. In 2018, he won the "2018 American 50 Outstanding Asian Talents Award".

Yong Zhou graduated from Xinjiang Art School in Xinjiang, China and stayed as a teacher after graduation. He received his mater degree in Oil Painting from Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts and became a professor of Xinjiang Normal University in Xinjiang, China. Yong Zhou was the founder of New Jersey Academy of Fine Arts and Princeton Academy of Art, and also served as the Art Advisor and Consultant at Asian Culture Center of Rutgers University and Deputy Director of the China Department of the New England Museum of Connecticut, and Chairman of the American Artists Association.

He co-founded the "May Sino-American International Art Festival" with the National Academy of Painting of China. For 10 consecutive years since 2010, he has co-organized annual May Sino-American International Art festivals in multiple cities in the US and China and art tours, attend by American artists from the most famous universities (Yale, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Rhode Island College of Art, Maryland College of Art, Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, National Academy of Art and Design), as well as leading Chinese artists from the National Academy of Painting of China. He also jointly with the American and Chinese artists held large-scale exhibitions, lectures, and seminars in the United Nations, New Jersey State Museum, and West Windsor City Museum and made great contributions to Chinese and American culture and art exchange.