Jia Lu

Who is Jia Lu?

Jia Lu (Simplified: 吕嘉; Traditional: 吕嘉; Pinyin: Lǚ Jiā;) is an oil painter working in America, known for blending Asian and European imagery in her paintings, predominantly of women.

Jia Lu was born in 1954 in Beijing and is the daughter of Chinese oil painter Lu Enyi (吕恩谊). While living in China, Jia Lu worked as an operating room nurse, an actress and magazine editor. In 1980 she was admitted to the Central Academy of Arts and Design (中央工艺美术学院), now part of Tsinghua University and studied under Fan Zeng, graduating in 1983.

Jia Lu's works include Chinese ink paintings, oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, sculpture and prints. Her early work strongly reflected the traditional aesthetics of her teacher Fan Zeng, but by the time she exhibited in Canada, she was critiquing new social developments, consumerism and power relations in China through a series of mixed-media self-portraits.[12] Her mature work in oils demonstrates an interest in Buddhism[13] and a purely feminine aesthetic,[14] and can be seen as a response to the masculine, sensual approach to the female nude. However, she has also painted male figures.[15] In numerous interviews she has emphasized the importance of beauty in her work, which she describes as "strength and wisdom."[16]