ChengOu Yu

Bio

Originally from China. ChengOu Yu received his BA in Ceramic Design from Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute (China) in 2012 and his Advanced Diploma with honor in Crafts and Design - Ceramics from Sheridan College (Canada) in 2015. In 2020, he graduated from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University with an MFA in ceramic art. He is currently an artist in residence at the Red Star Residency Program at Belger Crane Yard Studios in Kansas City, MO.

His trans-national experience impacts his roles as an artist. His attention in assumptions and representations between cultures reflected on the works. His interest in pottery form points to interest in iconography in general. By making iconic objects, he exams how the encounter of things under different circumstances changes our understanding and how does culture differences, life experience, becomes part of the cognitive process.

Artist Statement

The pot as an icon/sign that holds the history it carries, the meaning it contains and the concept it potentially delivers – the influence of the pot is significant in my practice. I use symbolic form to unfold and create meanings. Ideas and things are interpreted differently based on human experience and assumptions. Cultural context impacts what things become symbols and how meaning is held.

The experience of living in different places and cultures energizes my interest in concepts of representation, movement, and distortion. I analyze forms, building representations from the interpretation of things. I address how experiences reflect on the thinking and making process by analyzing the system I used to construct the work physically and conceptually. I orchestrate relationships through the interactions of ‘object to object’ and ‘object to viewer’ in the space. Space is not only a physical location; it also activates subjects. Distances between different things and objects, during encounter, creates tension, and energy.

Iconography, culture contrast and conflicts, system and logic, and the concept of space are the keywords of my work. I attempt to construct my thought and feeling as an international artist living in the US with the COVID-19 pandemic hit this country in the past 12 months; and what does this impacted and changed in us, our community, and global relationship.

Working with clay allows me to build structurally and metaphorically while I negotiate a material that is limited and limitless, strong and fragile, mass and light, stiff and fluid. It stretches, moves, distorts in all possible ways.

Exhibitions: