Cathy Lu
7.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches
Porcelain
2020
Statement
My work manipulates traditional Chinese objects as a way to deconstruct the assumptions we have about Asian American identity and cultural authenticity. By creating ceramic based sculptures and large scale installations, I explore what it means to be both Asian and American, while not being entirely accepted as either. Unpacking how experiences of immigration, cultural hybridity and assimilation become part of the larger American identity is central to my work.
My process involves slip casting, hand-built forms, and found forms to create installations. I am also interested in the cultural values we place on certain materials and processes—hand made vs. mass produced—as a framework to explore the authenticity of an object in relation to culture. I am not only interested in the object and what it represents, but am equally intrigued by the contexts in which we experience those objects.

A graduate of the Santa Monica College of Design, Art and Architecture and the San Francisco Art Institute, Tara has been an artist in residence at Anderson Ranch Center for the Arts, Penland School of Crafts, the Santa Fe Art Institute and received a fellowship to be in residence at the Vermont Studio Center.
To grapple with the sixth mass extinction and climate breakdown, she completed a Permaculture Design Course in 2018, Fritjof Capra’s Systems Thinking course in 2019 and became part of the Earth Regenerators Study Group in 2020

Tara Daly is a Californian sculptor working in ceramics who makes paintings and textiles in material driven processes that explore power, collapse and connection. She has exhibited at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Richmond Arts Center, Contemporary Craft Center among other non-profit art centers and galleries nationally.


A graduate of the Santa Monica College of Design, Art and Architecture and the San Francisco Art Institute, Tara has been an artist in residence at Anderson Ranch Center for the Arts, Penland School of Crafts, the Santa Fe Art Institute and received a fellowship to be in residence at the Vermont Studio Center.
To grapple with the sixth mass extinction and climate breakdown, she completed a Permaculture Design Course in 2018, Fritjof Capra’s Systems Thinking course in 2019 and became part of the Earth Regenerators Study Group in 2020

Tara Daly is a Californian sculptor working in ceramics who makes paintings and textiles in material driven processes that explore power, collapse and connection. She has exhibited at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Richmond Arts Center, Contemporary Craft Center among other non-profit art centers and galleries nationally.

applied contemporary
craft gallery
@applied_contemporary
473 25th St # D, Oakland, CA 94612