Jennifer Ling Datchuk: Karma is a Cat

Ruiz-Healy Art is pleased to present Karma is a Cat, a solo exhibition of works by gallery artist Jennifer Ling Datchuk, opening on Wednesday, November 15th, with an opening reception from 6:00-8:00 PM. Karma is a Cat will be on view at our New York City gallery through January 2024. A fully illustrated catalog will be published, and the artist will attend the opening reception. 

Jennifer Ling Datchuk’s work explores her layered identity–as a woman, a Chinese woman, an “American,” and a third-culture kid. Datchuk works with porcelain and materials often associated with traditional women’s work—such as textiles and hair fibers. Datchuk’s practice discusses fragility, beauty, femininity, intersectionality, identity, and her personal history. Through material culture, the history of craft, and by championing the handmade, Datchuk challenges the social, political, and cultural systems that continue to hold women back. The “cat lady” trope has persisted in culture and advances the stereotype of lonely and strange women who use felines as a substitute for both lovers and children. On May 4, 2022, Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida employed this sexist trope by tweeting, “How many of the women rallying against overturning Roe are over-educated, under-loved millennials who sadly return from protests to a lonely microwave dinner with their cats, and no Bumble matches?” Karma is a Cat delves into the use of the expression to discredit the feminist movement and explores the complexities of the “cat lady” label.