Life & Work with Cathy Lu

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathy Lu.

Hi Cathy, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Miami, FL in the 80s to Taiwanese-Chinese immigrants within a community of Cuban exiles. Being brought up in this community where Chinese was spoken at home, Spanish was the predominant language, and English was second, I felt like the visual arts became a language that I could communicate more easily in. I believe this intercultural experience is what led me to some of my main interests in my artwork: What does it mean to be Asian American or Chinese American? How do experiences of cultural hybridity and assimilation fit into the American story?

Since growing up in Miami, I have spent the last 14 years living in the Bay Area. I first moved out here to attend the MFA program at SFAI, but also because I was curious about the rich Chinese American history here. I primarily make ceramic-based sculptures and installations.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I feel a lot of my obstacles and challenges are probably very similar to other artists – struggling to support an art practice while figuring out an income.

I also felt like when I was coming up as an artist, work that was based on identity was often dismissed. I was often told that my work was not ‘conceptual enough.’ It made me very insecure about the quality or value of my work. I still get questions about how a ‘universal’ or ‘broader’ (i.e., white) audience would be able to understand my work. Having more experience now, it’s been easier to understand how these sorts of questions or comments are not actually about my work but reflect how white-centered our art institutions still are. That is an ongoing challenge, but at least now, I feel like I have found a community of artists, curators, and gallerists that are working to expand the canon.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My ceramic sculptures and installations explore Asian American identity and understanding how experiences of immigration, assimilation, and cultural hybridity become part of what is considered American. I cast fruits from Chinese produce markets as a way to talk about belonging and am currently reimagining garden creation myths like the Garden of Eden and the Immortal Peach Garden as a way to reconcile the promises of the American Dream with the lived realities of it. I’m interested in the creation story of the United States and how it can be expanded to include the contributions of immigrants, BIPOC, and other marginalized communities.

I’m interested in my work embodying the contradictions of being Asian American, of being both invisible and hypervisible, foreign and familiar, desirable and undesirable. Ceramics, being a material of contradictions, of being hard and fragile, impermanent as clay and permanent as ceramic, is the perfect way for me to talk about these issues.

As an artist, I’ve always had a ‘day job’ and I’m lucky that I’ve found a calling in being an arts educator. I have taught ceramics at so many different types of institutions to many different types of students – in K-8 schools, in high schools, art centers, community centers, and more recently at colleges and universities. I love that about ceramics – how it can engage at all levels – whether it’s a first time working with clay for a young child or a seasoned ceramicist of decades, whether you know very little or a lot about the technical process, working with clay can have a transformative experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cathyclu.com
• Instagram: @_cathyclu_

Image Credits
Aaron Rosenstreich