Resident Artist

Photo by Katy Anderson.

Chenlu Hou

Medium: Clay
Residency: March 1, 2022–
August 31, 2022

Originally from Shandong, China, ceramic artist Chenlu Hou uses storytelling to combine concurrent, overlapping systems and create a kaleidoscope of all things cultural, taboo, territorial and unforeseeable. Hou endeavors to capture a sense of darkness in her work by reframing, distorting, and highlighting the messiness of this combination. Incorporating a variety of media and forms—such as ceramic sculpture, drawing, industrial materials, video, and alienated figures—she employs the visual culture of folktales as a core vocabulary, which produces a very personal artistic context for her work. She enjoys setting up unconventional and absurd relationships between craft objects and moving images to suggest new and different possibilities.

Hou is currently living in Providence, RI.  She received her BA, concentrating in design, from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, in 2012, and her MFA, concentrating in ceramics, from Rhode Island School of Design, in 2019. Her work has been shown in the United States, Mexico, China, Korea, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. She had a solo show in Taipei, Taiwan, in 2021.

Learn more about Hou’s work at chenluhou.cargo.site.

More Residents

June 1, 2021 –
August 31, 2021
Medium: Metal
May 1, 2021 –
July 31, 2021
Medium: Fiber
February 1, 2021 –
April 30, 2021
Medium: Clay
February 1, 2021 –
May 30, 2021
Medium: Interdisciplinary Craft + Photography Residency
September 1, 2020 –
June 30, 2021
Medium: Paper
August 1, 2020 –
May 31, 2021
Medium: Clay

The application for the 2025 – 2026 cycle opens December 1, 2025. It’s free to apply!

The Artist Residency Program is designed to offer time and space for craft artists to focus on their creative work and interact with the public. The program supports emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media, including but not limited to clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood and mixed media.

The application for the 2025 – 2026 cycle opens December 1, 2025. It’s free to apply!

The Artist Residency Program is designed to offer time and space for craft artists to focus on their creative work and interact with the public. The program supports emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media, including but not limited to clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood and mixed media.

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