Cathy Lu

Cathy Lu creates ceramic sculptures and installations that manipulate traditional Chinese imagery and presentation as a way to deconstruct assumptions about Chinese diasporic identity and cultural authenticity. Central to her work is unpacking how experiences of immigration, cultural hybridity, and cultural assimilation become part of one’s American identity.  

Lu received a BA and BFA from School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently a SMFA Professor of the Practice in Ceramics at Tufts University.  

She has participated in artist-in-residence programs at Kohler Arts Center; Bemis Center for the Arts; Recology, San Francisco; Greenwich House Pottery, New York City; and the Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT.   

Her work has been exhibited widely, at The Armory Show, New York, NY; Art Basel Hong Kong;  Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; Prospect 6, New Orleans; Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong; MCA Denver. In the Bay Area, CA, she has shown at SFMOMA, Berkeley Art Center, Chinese Culture Center, Jessica Silverman Gallery, Kadist, Kala Arts Center, Manetti Shrem Museum, and Root Division. Lu was a 2019 Asian Cultural Council/Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation Fellow, and is a 2022 SFMOMA SECA Award winner.   

Lu’s work has recently been included in the collections of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, SFMOMA, the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Kadist, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.   

Programs:

• Marcus Exhibition When the World is Beautifully Strange (2025)