Heidi Lau
Lau grew up in both Colonial and post-Colonial Macau. She currently lives and works in New York.
Her practice engages in the making of minor history, the recreation of that which has been lost to time and man. Her ceramic work is modeled after tokens of remembrance— ritual objects, funerary monuments, and fossilized creatures—which are infested, deconstructed, and rebuilt
by hand. As one of the oldest and most universal materials associated with productive as well as artistic labor, clay naturally lends itself to the fundamental reconsideration of human activities at large. Reconfiguring fragmented personal and collective memories, she creates collections of symbolic artifacts and zoomorphic ruins as materialization of the archaic and the invisible, taking inspiration from colonial architecture and tenement houses in Macau that have been demolished or gentrified beyond recognition. In the process, she reenacts the non-linearity and materiality of the past, molding a tactile connection to the disappearing, impossible identity of home: Taoist mythology, folk superstitions, and colonial history provide essential source material for my exploration of transcendental displacement and nostalgia as the condition of contemporary and future existence.
2008 New York University, New York, NY; BFA
■ Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2019 Heidi Lau: Apparition, 58th Venice Biennale Collateral Exhibit from Macao China, Venice, Italy
Blood Echoes, AALA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2018 The Sentinels, with Rachel Frank, Geary, New York, NY
Solo Presentation at NADA New York with Geary, New York, NY
2017 The Primordial Molder, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY
2016 Third Rome, Deli Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Vestiges (from a Dream Pool), Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT
2015 Tea of Oblivion, Women’s Studies Research Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
2014 The Obscure Region II, Macao Art Museum, Macao, China
■ Selected Group Exhibition
2019 Lararium, Deli Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2018 The Burke Prize 2018, The Future of Craft Part 2, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
Tiger Strike Asteroid Ground Work 2018, TSA New York, Brooklyn, NY
Clay Today, The Hole, New York, NY
2017 Morph, Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York, NY
A Most Filial Imprint, Aike Dellarco, Shanghai, China
Fictive Universe, curated by Max Razdow and Kari Adelaide, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, NY
2016 Sour, Sweet, Bitter, Spicy: Stories of Chinese Food and Identity in America, Museum of Chinese in America, New York, NY
Under the Tongue, curated by Marie Catalano, Evening Hours, New York, NY
2015 Feelers, curated by Susan Metrican, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
Made in USA/Some Parts Imported curated by Naomi Reis and Heidi Lau, TSA New York, Brooklyn, NY
2014 EAF 14, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY
2011 Bronx Calling: the first AIM biennial, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
■ Residencies
Joan Mitchell Center Residency, New Orleans, LA, 2018
The Saint John’s Pottery Jerome Foundation Emerging Artist Program, Collegeville, MN, 2018
Triple Canopy Commission, New York, NY, 2018
BRIC Media Arts Fellowship, Brooklyn, NY, 2017
Museum of Art and Design Artist Studio Program, New York, NY, 2017
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Process Space Program, New York, NY, 2016
Guttenberg Arts Space and Time Artist Residency, Guttenberg, NJ, 2015
Center For Book Arts Workspace Program, New York, NY, 2014
Emmanuel College Artist in Residence Program, Boston, MA, 2013
Aljira Emerge 11, Newark, NJ, 2013
Snug Harbor Artist Residency Program, Staten Island, NY, 2012
Bronx Museum Artist in the Marketplace Program, Bronx, NY, 2011
■ Awards
The Burke Prize by the Museum of Art and Design (Finalist), New York, NY, 2018
The Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant, New York, NY, 2017
Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, New York, NY, 2015
Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist Fellowship, Long Island City, NY, 2014
Edward and Sally Van Lier Fellowship, New York, NY, 2012
Clo Ceardlann Artist Fellowship, Donegal, Ireland, 2010
Martin Wong Scholarship, New York, NY, 2005
■Selected Bibliography and Press
58th Venice Biennale Collateral Event from Macao, China. Heidi Lau: Apparition Catalogue. 2019.
The Hole. Clay Today Exhibition Catalogue. 2018.
Lehman College Art Gallery. Gothic Influence in Contemporary Art Exhibition Catalogue. 2017.
Real Art Ways. Vestiges of a Dream Pool Exhibition Catalogue. 2016.
Brandeis University. Tea of Oblivion Exhibition Catalogue. 2015.
Socrates Sculpture Park. EAF 14 Catalogue. 2014.
Bronx Museum. Bronx Calling: The First AIM Biennial Catalogue. 2011.
明報. Ways of Seeing：在威尼斯看劉慧德：澳門是世界的._ _曾曉玲. 2019.
South China Morning Post. Macau’s lost identity in focus at its Venice Biennale pavilion, an exile’s take on casino culture by Enid Tsui. 2019.
ArtAsiaPacific. 58th Venice Biennale, Part 5: National Pavilions and Collateral Exhibitions Beyond the Arsenale and Giardini by HG Masters. 2019.
Art in America. Trans-China: Gender, Media, and Nation at the Venice Biennale by Richard Vine. 2019.
ArtAsiaPacific. Finding Clarity with Distance: Interview with Heidi Lau by Jennifer S. Li. 2019.
Newest York. In Conversation with Heidi Lau by Haley Weiss. 2018.
New York Times. What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week by Jillian Steinhauer. 2018
Art News. Bronx Museum Acquires Three Works from NADA. 2018.
Art Space. 8 Artists You Can’t Miss From NADA. 2018.
Hyperallergic. Lapping Up NADA New York’s Lush Portraits and Giant Tongue Sculptures by Benjamin Sutton. 2018.
Hyperallergic. A Taste of the Complex Relationship between Chinese Food and Identity in America by Claire Voon. 2017.
Leap Magazine. Heidi Lau: Nowhere Home by Kang Kang. February 2016.