Karen Zhou
compositions
fragments
vessels
interiors
beginnings
about
library
My art is rooted in the belief that all things are connected—mineral, body, plant, mountain, breath. There is one vital energy and it is the source moving through all things. I look across cultures and time, seeking archetypal narratives grounded in this belief. I follow this thread like a memory, and use clay to reclaim a truth that feels both ancient and unfinished.
I collect stories that bind flesh and earth—indigenous myths, Taoist cosmologies, archetypal symbols, contemporary fiction. I’m drawn to moments of transformation, the soft boundaries where one form dissolves into another. I distill the essential imagery of these stories—a woman’s heart transforming to a strawberry, a horse evolving to man, a snake constantly renewing—and begin to build.
I use clay for its memory of touch and its legacy as an ancient material. I alternate between handbuilding and pressing clay from plaster molds I've poured and carved. Some pieces are fired with an armor of glaze, others become fragile canvases washed in watercolor and paint. They emerge like relics, fragmented or color-faded.
Some pieces stand alone. Others gather, forming altars, constellations, gestures toward a story returning through time. They offer rhythm and space, like a dream you move through slowly. They ask you to notice what’s beyond the visible, to feel the resonance of something ancient returning, like breath held in stone.
Through this work, I revive stories that have soothed me through the ecological and societal anxiety of our times. They remind me: nothing is fixed. Everything changes. Everything returns.
Karen Zhou (b. 1990, New Haven, CT) is a self-taught ceramic artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She spent her childhood in Connecticut, North Carolina, Belgium, Hong Kong, and Arizona. She holds a BSc in Mathematics, a BSc in Economics, and a Minor in Architecture from MIT.