MenLo is a studio and gallery focused on growing the international artist community in Jingdezhen, providing access to the city for aspiring ceramic artists, and amplifying young and emerging Chinese contemporary artists in any medium. As a studio we are committed to working in an integrated way with the city, its artisans, and its industry. As a gallery we do not have representational relationships with artists, we facilitate making, and try to find the work done in our studio homes in various galleries, museums, and other venues around China.
Kala joined us in 2019 as a resident and leader of our “porcelain Echoes” summer session. Kala created a body of work based around photos of the pacific ocean taken before her residency in California by working with a Jingdezhen factory to make high temperature decals along with sheets of pure gold luster and layering the two. She also found inspiration in the streets of “Old Factory” where all kinds of functional reradymades can be found. Kala made a relationship with a tea tray maker and from there created a series of wall hanging sculptures.
Kala is the director of the Ceramics Department at the Sonoma Cummunity Center in Sonoma California. There she orginizes educational opportunities and residencies for ceramic artists in addition to creating her own work. She graduated with an MFA from The NYSCC at Alfred University in 2008.
