Jennifer Ling Datchuk: Karma Is A Cat: New York City

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.

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. In her latest work, Datchuk continues to build upon her “object-based practice” by initiating thought-provoking dialogues that confront the misogynistic conventions that continually stigmatize women who defy traditional roles.

Hear Us Coming features 8 porcelain cat bells each measuring 3 x 3 x 3.5 inches. Datchuk states,“As an overeducated, cat-loving, elder millennial in a committed and loving relationship with a man and cat, I am actively fighting against the social, cultural, and political systems that continue to hold women back. Adorned with large porcelain bells, they will hear us coming and continue to fear us because karma is a cat." 

"Women and people of color are imprisoned in cages that men have created. These patriarchal systems turn women's bodies into sites of ideological struggles, where often whiteness is centered and the assumed standard. As a Chinese American woman, I want to reclaim the narratives that we did not create, claim visibility in the black and white racial binary, and show that our stories are not monolithic." - Jennifer Ling Datchuk​​​​​​​​

Jennifer Ling Datchuk was born in Warren, Ohio, and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Datchuk holds an MFA in Artisanry from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a BFA in Crafts from Kent State University. In 2017,  Datchuk received the Emerging Voices award from the American Craft Council and, in 2020, was named a United States Artist Fellow in Craft. Her work has been featured in a solo publication, “Jennifer Ling Datchuk: Half,” through French and Michigan in San Antonio, TX, and included in “Artpace at 25,” “Black Cube: A Nomadic Museum,” the Guardian, Vogue, and American Craft Magazine. Her work is in the collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA. She is an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at Arizona State University and lives and maintains a studio practice in Phoenix, Arizona.