Chenlu Hou, born in Shandong, China, is a ceramic artist based in Providence, RI. She earned her MFA in Ceramic Art from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2019. Chenlu has completed residencies at the Museum of Arts and Design, Penland School of Craft, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and the Archie Bray Foundation. She was recently awarded an emerging artist fellowship from the National Council on the Ceramic Arts and currently serves as a Visiting Critic at the Rhode Island School of Design. She is represented by Kirstin Lorello.

The Weight of Air
Artist Statement

My work features imaginative depictions of women, animals, and plants rendered onto hand-built ceramic objects. It takes storytelling as a meeting point of concurrent and past. The experiences I have had while living in the United States since 2017 and the culture I have inherited while living in China fused to form these narrative ceramic objects. Building with clay seems a metaphoric process that speaks to my adaptation to a new environment, from frightening to the mundane - intimidation, distortion, excitement, confusion, and eventually, celebration. I use airbrushes to apply vibrant color underglazes onto ceramic objects. This technique allows for intricacies and layering possibilities, the fluidity and depth of colors achieved through airbrushing create a dreamy, dynamic portrayal of cultural celebration.

My creative process serves as a refuge, allowing personal emotions and confusion to manifest in the sculptures. Through the tactile nature of ceramics and the vivid underglaze palette, each piece communicates a deeply personal narrative beyond the scope of traditional applied arts. Incorporating various media - ceramic sculptures, drawings, and video – I employ the visual form of folk art as a core vocabulary. Placing craft and moving images in unconventional and absurd relationships with one another to create an inter-growth in their conventional functions, reflecting on their roles as storytelling props with which we co-exist in an uneasy present.

–Chenlu Hou