Hou Chen-Lou was born in China in 1989, and lives and works in New York. She obtained a Master's degree in Ceramic Art from Rhode Island School of Design in 2019, and received a M.A. in Decorative Art Design from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China in 2016. Hou Chen Lu predominately features women as her creative subjects, born from personal experience growing up near a factory in China's Shandong Province. The plump middle-aged ladies walking about in the steam unabashedly at the public baths left a strong impression on her. Whether it's a sculpture of a woman with three breasts, or a group of women of all shapes and sizes partying like there's no tomorrow, what they share in common is overflowing confidence, without a care for society's judging eyes. Here, gender and cultural symbols can be separately interpreted, challenging both gender equality and a diverse set of values. Gender is a stage show at the public bath: not male and not female, both male and female, not West and not East, both West and East. Women's bodies can be objects to be freely constructed and deconstructed, or they may become metaphorical symbols to express ideological conflict, all free from traditional moral frameworks.
Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions including the BACK_Y, Taipei (2022), YIRI ARTS, Taipei (2021), Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston (2020), Sullivan Gallery, Spokane (2019), Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena (2019), RISD Nature Lab, Rhode Island (2018), Gelman Gallery, Rhode Island (2018), Sol Koffler Gallery, Rhode Island (2018), Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale, Yeoju, Korea (2017), Museum of Contemporary Art of China Academy of Art, Hangzhou (2015), and Incheon culture Art Center, Incheon, Korea (2012).