About

Beth Lo was born on October 11, 1949 in Lafayette, Indiana, to parents who had recently emigrated from China. Much of Beth’s ceramic and mixed media artwork draws from themes of childhood, family, Asian culture and language. She received a Bachelor of General Studies from the University of Michigan in 1971, and then studied Ceramics with Rudy Autio at the University of Montana receiving her MFA in 1974. She assumed his job as Professor of Ceramics there when he retired in 1985, and has been twice honored with the University of Montana Provost’s Distinguished Lecturer Award, 2006 and 2010.

Beth Lo has exhibited her work internationally. She was invited to make a new work for the Main Exhibition of the 7th Gyeonggi International Ceramics Biennale in Korea, 2013. She has received numerous honors including the $50,000 United States Artists Hoi Fellowship in 2009, a $20,000 National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship Grant in 1994, a Montana Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship in 1989 and an American Craft Museum Design Award in 1986. Her figurative sculpture and pottery has been acquired by the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA, Microsoft Corporation, Cheney Cowles Museum of Art, the University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, the Permanent Collection, Yellowstone Art Center, Billings, MT, and the Hallmark Card Corporation Ceramics Collection.

Beth and her sister, author Ginnie Lo, have collaborated on two children’s picture books, Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic (2012) and Mahjong All Day Long which won the 2005 Marion Vannett Ridgeway Award. She has also collaborated with her mother, Chinese brush painter, Kiahsuang Shen Lo. Beth is also active as a bass player and vocalist for several musical ensembles including The Big Sky Mudflaps and Salsa Loca. The Big Sky Mudflaps is a swing and jazz ensemble that has played on the NBC Today Show and the Kool Jazz Festival among other national venues.

Artist Statement

My work in ceramics and mixed media collage revolves primarily around issues of family and my Asian-American background. Cultural marginality and blending, tradition vs. Westernization, language and translation are key elements in my work. Since the birth of my son in 1987, I have been drawing inspiration from major events in my family’s history, the day-to- day challenges of parenting, and my own childhood memories of being raised in a minority culture in the United States. I use the image of a child as a symbol of innocence, potential and vulnerability.

Resumé

Beth Lo
Professor of Art, School of Art, University of Montana

Education

1974 MFA, Ceramics University of Montana
1971 BGS, General Studies University of Michigan

Selected Honors and Awards

2023 Demonstrating Artist, NCECA Conference, Cincinnati, OH
2018 Montana Potter Laureate
2010 UM Provost’s Distinguished Faculty Award
2009 United States Artists $50,000 Hoi Fellowship
2008 UM School of Fine Arts Alumni Award, Odyssey of the Stars
2006 Montana Book Award Honor Book
2006 Marion Vannett Ridgeway Award for Mahjong All Day Long
2006 UM Provost’s Distinguished Faculty Award
2003 Demonstrator, NCECA Conference
2002 UM School of Fine Arts Distinguished Faculty Award
1996 UM School of Fine Arts Distinguished Faculty Award
1995 Presenter, NGO Conference on Women, Beijing, China
1994 National Endowment for the Arts $20,000 Visual Artists Fellowship Grant
1993 Presenter, NCECA Conference
1991 Demonstrator, NCECA Conference
1989 Montana Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship
1986 American Craft Museum Design Award

Selected One and Two Person Exhibitions

2025 Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA
2024 Radius Gallery, Missoula MT, with Steven Young Lee
2024 Akar Gallery, online
2023 Lucy Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA
2022 Natsoulas Gallery, Davis CA
2022 Radius Gallery: Beth Lo, Missoula, MT with Steven Young Lee
2021 Akar Gallery
2021 Tandem Gallery: Beth Lo and Lauren Gallaspy
2021 Lacoste Gallery: Beth Lo and Jennifer Ling Datchuk
2020 Red Lodge Clay Center: Beth Lo and Steve Lee
2019 Radius Gallery, Missoula MT
2019 Lacoste/Keane Gallery, Concord, MA
2018 Schaller Gallery
2018 Akar Gallery
2017 Sherry Leedy Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2016 Turman Larison Gallery, Helena, MT
2016 Tori Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, WI
2015 Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, MI
2012 Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2009 Carleton College, Minnesota
2008 Lane County Community College, Eugene, OR
2005 Missoula Museum of the Arts, Missoula, MT
2005 Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle, WA
2004 Santa Fe Clay Arts Center, Santa Fe, NM
2002 Lorinda Knight Gallery, Spokane, WA
2001 Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle, WA
2000 Lorinda Knight Gallery, Spokane, WA
2000 Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, MA
1996 Mia Gallery, Seattle, WA
1996 J. Maddux Parker Gallery, Sacramento, CA
1993 Mia Gallery, Seattle, WA
1993 J. Maddux Parker Gallery, Sacramento, CA
1990 Yellowstone Art Center, Billings, MT

Selected Recent Small Group Exhibitions

2024 Sherry Leedy Gallery, Fall Group Exhibition, Kansas City, MO
2023/24 Our America, Whose America, Ferrin Gallery, Lenox MA/ Richmond VA
2023 78th Scripps College Annual Invitational, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery
2023 “I Contain Multiples” NCECA Invitational, Cincinnati, OH
2022 In Tandem Gallery, Bakersfield, NC
2021 Project Sands X, Beyond the Blue, Macao China
2021 Contemporary Ceramics 2021, Western Carolina Museum of Art
2020 Amoca: Making in Between: Contemporary Chinese American Ceramics
2020 Sherry Ieedy Gallery: 35 Year Anniversary Exhibition
2020 Radius Gallery: Covid 19 Fundraiser
2019 Women Working in Clay Symposium Exhibition, Eleanor Wilson Museum, Roanoke, VA
2018 “The Incongruous Body”,American Museum of Contemporary Art, Pomona CA
2018 Lacoste/Keane Gallery, Concord, MA
2018 Red Lodge Clay Art Center, Red Lodge, MT
2017 Natsoulas Gallery California Clay Art Convention
2016 50 Women: A Celebration of Women’s Contribution to Ceramics, NCECA Kansas City
2015 American Pottery Festival, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis
2014 American Pottery Festival, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, closing lecture
2013 7th International Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale, Korea
2012 “The New Blue and White”, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, MA
2012 “Contemporary Ceramics”, Stremmel Gallery, Reno, NV
2008 “Voices,” NCECA Invitational Exhibition, Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA, (catalog)
2007 “Contemporary Ceramics" at the Dairy Barn Arts Center, Athens, OH
2007 “Form and Imagination: Women Ceramic Sculptors”, American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), Pomona, CA
2006 “Life Insight”, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY
2006 Clay Menagerie”, Garth Clark Gallery, NYC, NY
2005 NCECA Exhibition, Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
2004 “Portraits,” Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, MA
2003 “Subject. Me. Object” Ferrin Gallery, Lenox, MA
2003 “Crossroads: New Art from the Northwest” Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA

Selected Publications and Reviews

2020 Beth Lo Monograph, Natsoulas Press 
2016  Beth Lo,  Natsoulas Press
2014 “Breath, Beth Lo in Korea”, by Brandon Reintjes, Ceramics: Art and Perception, Issue 97
2012  Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic, by Ginnie Lo (children’s book illustrations), Lee and Low, NYC
2005 Mahjong All Day Long, by Ginnie Lo (children’s book illustrations), Walker Books, NYC
2000 American Craft Magazine, cover story by Rick Newby
1996 Artweek, review by Ron Glowen
1995 Ceramics Monthly (May issue)
1995 "Artists at Work: 25 Northwest Glassmakers," Ceramicists and Jewelers, by Susan Biskeborn
1987 "American Ceramics," New York Times Magazine

Selected Collections

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
Schein –Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred, NY
Tweed Art Museum, Duluth, MN
Ceramic Research Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Hallmark Art Collection
The Dinnerware Museum, Ann Arbor, MI
Microsoft Corporation, WA
University of Washington Harborview Medical Center, WA
Carleton College, MN
Missoula Art Museum, MT
Yellowstone Art Center, Billings, MT