2025-26 Artists-In-Residence | Office for the Arts at Harvard

2025-26 Artists In Residence

Ceramics Program

Chenlu Hou and Ashton Keen

The Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard welcomes artist Chenlu Hou to its Artist In Residence Program for the 2025-26 year. Ashton Keen, an Artist In Residence in 2024-25, will stay on for an additional year. The program runs from September 2025 through August 2026.

Chenlu Hou

Chenlu Hou’s imaginative sculptures draw inspiration from Chinese folk art, ceremonial objects, and moments from her daily life. Blending personal memories with reinterpretations of traditional storytelling, Hou creates a distinctive artistic language that weaves together sharp decorative elements and narrative suggestions. Her hand-built ceramic works explore the intricate relationships between human, animal, and plant forms, inviting viewers into layered worlds where the boundaries between myth, memory, and lived experience blur. Born in Shandong, China, Chenlu Hou is a ceramic artist based in Providence, Rhode Island. She received her MFA in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2019 and has completed residencies at the Museum of Arts and Design, Penland School of Craft, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and the Archie Bray Foundation. She is currently a Visiting Critic in Ceramics at RISD.

Ashton Keen

Ashton Keen received her BFA from the University of Mississippi. Following graduation, she went on to become an intern at STARworks Center for Creative Enterprise. Most recently, she completed an MFA from Utah State University. Her work has been displayed in several national exhibitions and has received various awards, as well as being selected as one of Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artists 2024. In Summer 2024 she attended a residency at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Japan where she focused on pouring pots and atmospheric firing. Ashton is a 2025 featured artist in Sustain: International Woodfire Conference at Starworks in Star, NC, and the Ohio University Atmospheric Conference in Athens, OH. Ashton is an Instructor at the Harvard Ceramics Program and the Massachusetts College of Art in Design in Boston.

a ceramic sculpture by Chenlou Hou, in pale blue with yellow accents. the title is "In memory of the auntie with a gold tooth who butchered a carp right in front of you" and it is symmetric composition of abstracted carp facing each other with smaller ornaments dangling and attached with high temperature wire. — Chenlu Hou, *In memory of the auntie with a gold tooth who butchered a carp right in front of you,* 2023. Terracotta, underglaze, zip-ties, high-temp wire hooks, hand-cut polypropylene. Slab hand-built, air-brushed surface with underglaze. Photo credit: Charles Benton

ceramic sculpture of a person diving into the water, in soft tones of lavender, yellow, and teal — Chenlu Hou, *A long-haired figure diving into the water to grasp the reflection of the moon,* 2023. Terracotta, underglaze, zip-ties, high-temp wire hooks. Slab hand-built, air-brushed surface with underglaze. Photo credit: Charles Benton

The artist Chenlou Hou stands peeking out from behind one of her colorful ceramic and mixed media sculptures. She is wearing a black shirt. — Chenlu Hou. Photo: Beatriz Meseguer, On White Wall

Ashton Keen standing against a brick wall holding a cup she made with signature dandelion motif. — Ashton Keen.

ewer - ceramic pouring vessel with long vertical spout and neck - by Ashton Keen — Ashton Keen. Ewer, Red Clay, Cone 3 Soda fired, Helmar sig, 8 x 6 x 6 inch, 2024.

ceramic bowl by Ashton Keen featuring soft orange/pink/tan drips of flashing slip with darker areas of clay showing through, with single black dandelion motif — Ashton Keen, Bowl, Red Clay, Cone 3 Soda fired, AP green sig, 8 x 8 x 3.5-inch, Velvet black underglaze,
2024