Ai-Wen Wu Kratz
Ai-Wen Wu Kratz lives in Chantilly, VA, a suburb of Washington, DC. She is originally from Hong Kong. In May, 2026, she and her family visited Wu Zifu’s, her uncle, Retrospective Exhibition, “A New Sound Breaking The Silent Valley”, at the Guangzhou Art Museum. Wu Kratz is from a family of six children, with parents who encouraged education and emphasized ethics. A noticeable number on her family tree have the interest in visual arts and performing arts. As teenagers, Ai-Wen and her younger brother were sent to studios to study watercolored paintings. In college, Ai-Wen was given the freedom by her parents to choose a profession that would likely lead her to a gratifying future. "To be a painter, you must be a person of high integrity.” said her father, “For your works mirror you!” Ai-Wen sails on as a painter with such a profound remembrance.
Ai-Wen received an BFA degree from Fort Wright College, Spokane, WA; her MFA degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hill, MI. She is an alumna of Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. In addition to the U.S., Ai-Wen had one-person exhibitions in France, Germany, England, Egypt and Austria. Her latest one-person exhibition was in 2025 at the Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA. Her works are represented by Agora Gallery, New York, NY.
Statement
About the Amazon River, a line such as, “This river, a wound on the earth, carved by serpents as they passed, “has more evocative power for me than the seven thousand words or more in the Wikipedia reporting the facts of the river. In writing, words, their combination and order, give the power and conviction in deliverance. May my lines, colors, planes, forms, shapes and movements from my tools, do just that magical conveyance. To the public, I wish to say: Come to us, the visual artists, dancers, poets, writers, playwrights, musicians and story tellers. Together, we’ll form a shade to shelter you from the heat and weariness of life. Together, in this sanctuary, we shall hear the birds’ happy mating, share the breeze of renewal, and bathe in the warmth of the fragrant earth.
