Lena Wang Luo (罗黎娜) is a Chinese American, Brooklyn based interdisciplinary artist who works primarily with glass. Her artistic practice is both conceptual and craft based. In her conceptual practice, she focuses on themes around duality and deconstructing dichotomies, all the while adding a craftsman’s eye to the incorporation of glass as a conceptual medium.
Lena grew up between the US and China, spending formative years in Ohio, USA and Shanghai, China. The contrast of those two vastly different social and cultural contexts made her acutely aware of perceived dichotomies and the importance of duality. Her conceptual body of work is generally composed of artifacts and objects from worlds that could have been but never were. The disciplines that she explores and employs include sculpture, painting, installation, video, and photography.
In her craft practice, she is obsessed with fun color applications in home goods and jewelry products.
About
Artist Statement
I create artifacts from worlds that could have been but never were. These are worlds that I see potential in for the future, worlds that our current reality might have been if something in history had been different. My body of work asks us to consider what we think we know, imagine what could have been, and contemplate where we go from here.
I grew up as a foreigner in my mother country. Having been considered US American in China, and Chinese in the US, the concept of duality is ever-present in my conscious and subconscious life. My identity and experiences are rooted in binaries and “opposites” from which I draw the inspiration for my practice. Working with glass as a material full of its own “contradictions” has heightened my awareness of dichotomy in life: helped me recognize the presence of binaries; and understand when they are constructed vs. inherent, and where opposites merge.
My art deals with and combines conflicting concepts: normal and neurodivergent; perception and reality; nature and urbanism; sexuality as a force that is both draining and empowering; identity that is both Chinese and US American. The themes of my pieces are eclectic, but they always address concepts of converging opposites. If one of my pieces can help someone deconstruct an idea, and help them eventually reconstruct and grow, I will consider that work a success.