Emotions Big and Small: Nikki Lau's Ceramic Food
Nikki Lau, one of the featured Shop artists for Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, shares about her ceramics journey and the expressive food sculptures she’s known for.
Nikki Lau is a San Francisco native and a former 2018-2019 resident artist at Clay Art Center who creates food-inspired pottery incorporating unique facial expressions. From SPAM to sushi, donuts to onigiri, her ceramic foods express surprise, joy, and even a certain shyness. Sometimes functional and sometimes purely decorative, Lau’s foods all have “big and small emotions” and reflect her upbringing, favorite foods, and travel experiences. Lau has long referenced her Asian culture in her sculptures; the first ceramic food she can remember making was a plate of steamed fish for an installation piece call "Chinese Thanksgiving". According to Lau, she plans to continue to dig deeper with food, sharing that, “I feel like I am just scratching the surface of what to explore with what I can add a face to. I want to explore every genre of food from different cultures. I hope to create the whole food pyramid.”
Lau first started working with ceramics in a sculpture class, where she was tasked with building a bust in a narrative piece. Lau remembers taking to clay immediately: “My first experience with ceramics was in a sculpture class and we built a bust and a narrative piece. I remember thinking how much I loved how clay felt and how natural the whole process felt for me.” Her initial work was large-scale, focusing on ceramic sculpture installations, which Lau did for 15 years before pivoting towards her current smaller-scale work. Her residency at Clay Art Center gave her the opportunity to explore this different, more accessible style, which Lau has become known for. “My work is a lot more playful, whimsical and rooted in kidcore,”Lau notes, “I'm obsessed with food, 90's and early 2000 cartoons, anything with an element of play, softness, and showcasing a range of emotions.”
After Lau’s artist residency in 2018-2019, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Amid the uncertainty and sheltering in place, Lau turned to her ceramics and decided to go all in. While she had dabbled with her ceramics business prior to that point, Lau notes that the pandemic was a turning point and she hasn’t looked back. As she continues to explore ceramic foods and their many expressions, Lau also reflected on being a featured Clay Art Center Shop artist for Asian American and Pacific Islander month: “I was very honored to be asked to be a featured artist. It was also a great push because I had been wanting to do an AAPI Heritage Month themed body of work for a long time.” Lau’s collection, which includes mochi donut and onigiri wall hangings, egg tart jars, mooncake incense holders, and a tangerine bag sculpture, speak to that heritage and the nostalgia of these foods. Lau added that she’s also a big fan of Hatsumi Suyama’s work, the other featured artist for Asian American and Pacific Islander Month.
To finish off the interview, we asked Lau what her favorite ceramics advice she ever received was, and what advice she herself would give to new ceramicists. The best advice she ever got? That failure is data collection, and to prioritize progress over perfection. Her advice mirrors this wisdom: “Be curious and approach life with an abundance mindset. If you don't know how to do something, try it, explore it or ask someone else that might know. It's fun to experiment and it's healthy to not be too attached to outcomes whether it's a success or not.” You can view Nikki Lau and Hatsumi Suyama’s work online and in the Gallery for all of Asian American Pacific Islander Month. Want to learn to make your own ceramic food? Sign up for Nikki Lau’s workshop on June 30th and July 1st!
