Cathy Lu and Yulia Pinkusevich: Emergence
Emergence is a two-person exhibition featuring the works of Bay Area artists Cathy Lu and Yulia Pinkusevich. Bringing together Pinkusevich’s elemental fire portraits and Lu’s sculptural incense burners, the exhibition explores the spiritual, cultural, and environmental dimensions of transformation and regeneration. The title takes inspiration from the interplay between "emergence" and "emergency," referencing rituals of cleansing and the symbology of smoke and fire.
Cathy Lu, Untitled (Peach Incense Holder) [Peach 1], 2021, stoneware, glaze, joss sticks, 35 x 36 x 27 in
Yulia Pinkusevich, Sacred Fire 2, 2024, ink, acrylic, charcoal and gold leaf on canvas, 16 x 12 in
Through organic ceramics and numinous paintings, the Bay Area artists employ inherited forms and ancient traditions as tools for reimagining the beyond. Fire, incense, mica, ash, and charcoal become materials of transformation, holding destruction and renewal in the same gesture.
Yulia Pinkusevich, As the World Burns (Fire), 2023, acrylic, ink, charcoal, ash, coepsis flowers, dry pigment, paper, and glitter on canvas, 82 x 65 in
For Cathy Lu, an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley and SFMOMA SECA Award winner, ritual begins with clearing space. Her sculptural incense burners draw on Chinese and Taiwanese temple practices, utilizing aromatic smoke to thin the partition between the living and the dead. Through these vessels, Lu summons narratives and figures excluded from historical annals, allowing underrepresented stories to be nurtured and disseminated. Her work often evokes Nüwa, the Chinese goddess who fashioned humanity from clay, modeling the artist's responsibility to create something newly alive from what has been given.
Yulia Pinkusevich, an Associate Professor at Northeastern University and a 2024 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow, approaches transformation by integrating symbolic fire into her paintings. Her canvases incorporate natural pigments and remnants of physical combustion—charcoal, ash, and mica. These "ritual flame portraits" gesture toward Siberian animism and shamanic cosmologies, where fire is treated as an active presence. Pinkusevich’s style is tensioned between fine, diagrammatic marks and sweeping, atmospheric gestures, imbuing even her smallest works with the aura of icons.
About the Artists
Cathy Lu (b. Miami, FL) received her BA and BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at UC Berkeley. A 2022 SFMOMA SECA Award winner and 2019 Asian Cultural Council Fellow, Lu’s work is held in the collections of SFMOMA, the Asian Art Museum San Francisco, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. She has exhibited globally at venues including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Art Basel Hong Kong, and the Chengdu Biennial.
Lu creates ceramic-based sculptures and installations referencing Chinese diasporic mythology and imagery to interrogate fallacies of race and gender in American culture. Her practice draws attention to unacknowledged histories of immigration and hybridity, reimagining past and present narratives to propose a more equitable future.
Yulia Pinkusevich (b. Kharkiv, Ukraine) holds an MFA from Stanford University and a BFA from Rutgers University. A 2024 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow at the National Air and Space Museum, she has received fellowships from the Headlands Center for the Arts and the Cite des Arts International Paris. Currently an Associate Professor of Studio Art at Northeastern University, her work is included in the public collections of the de Young Museum, Stanford University, the Kiev History Museum, and Meta. She has exhibited internationally in Paris, London, and Buenos Aires.
Pinkusevich is an artist and educator whose work explores transformation through elemental and philosophical lenses. Often incorporating remnants of physical combustion and symbolic fire, her practice contemplates mortality and energetic connections. Her background as a refugee from the former Soviet Union informs her exploration of shifting systems, using painting and installation to navigate the tension between historical archives and the natural world.
Cathy Lu, Nuwa's Arm with Incense (floor), 2022, ceramic, glaze, joss sticks, 12 x 144 x 36 in