Owen Fu

Owen Fu’s paintings inhabit a space where emotions take shape, manifesting as fleeting figures and shifting forms that resist definition. His intuitive, unrestrained linework transforms everyday objects into animated presences—part creature, part memory, part subconscious apparition. These figures emerge spontaneously, not as fixed representations but as fluid expressions of feeling, inviting viewers into a world where time, identity, and emotion dissolve into painterly gesture.
Fu often depicts surreal domestic scenes cast in a nocturnal glow, where ghostly figures and inanimate objects merge as the boundary between reality and dreams disintegrates. In his work, the act of painting becomes a conversation—sometimes playful, sometimes melancholic—where meaning remains open, and the familiar takes on an uncanny, living quality. More than simply re-enchanting the everyday, Fu’s paintings balance the banal and the mysterious, suggesting that even ordinary things may harbor hidden emotional and psychological charge.

Owen Fu (b. 1988, China) lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He received his MFA from the ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena (2018), following a BA in Philosophy from Stony Brook University, New York, and a BA in Fine Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Recent solo exhibitions include Own Alone, P·P·O·W, New York (2025); Last Summer, Balice Hertling, Paris (2023); Stealing Beauty, Antenna Space, Shanghai (2022); Ordinary Things, O-Town House, Los Angeles (2022); and After Hours, Balice Hertling, Paris (2021).

His work has been featured in group exhibitions at Antenna Space (Shanghai), Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), Gagosian (Hong Kong), and Balice Hertling (Paris), among others. In 2022, Fu participated in the Beijing Biennial and Magic Square: Art and Literature in Mirror Image at Friendship Art Community (Beijing).

His works are held in numerous international collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), Domus Collection (New York), K11 Art Foundation (Hong Kong), START Museum(Shanghai), George Economou Collection (Athens) and Aïshti Foundation (Beirut).