Meet Bao-khang Luu

We recently connected with Bao-khang Luu and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Bao-Khang, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

Discovering my purpose has been a long and complicated journey. It boils down to the struggle between the expectations of my Vietnamese refugee family, who valued stable professions like medicine and law, and my innate need to create.

I tried reconciling the two opposing forces for a long time. In college, I studied design, but intending to become a medical doctor, I also studied microbiology. It left me feeling disconnected, and I realized I was chasing someone else’s idea of success. I eventually completed my undergraduate studies in design, worked for a few years, and then moved to New York City, earning an MFA from the Parsons School of Design.

For years after that, I built a web and graphic design career in New York City’s Silicon Alley. While working in tech and tapping into my creative side seemed like a practical balance, I still felt something was missing.

I poured all my energy into corporate projects, which drained my creativity. I launched Relevé Design, a business focused on upcycled home décor to address this. However, I still felt I hadn’t found my voice. I delivered projects and products for clients, customers, and followers, but I wasn’t creating for myself.

When I moved to London, I was burnt out and creatively paralyzed, unable to produce anything for years. Although it felt like a failure, in hindsight, it was a necessary period of reflection and a crucial time to replenish my creative energy.

Just before the pandemic, I relocated to a serene village in the Swiss Alps, surrounded by nature. There, I met Sophie Scott, a gallerist and artist whose encouragement reignited my creative spark. I began collecting pine cones, lichen, and tree branches to explore new ideas, leading to the creation of my Les Reconfigurations series.

In those quiet moments, working with found and reclaimed materials, I realized my purpose: to tell stories of resilience and transformation. My work reimagines the overlooked and undervalued, giving new life to what others might discard—whether that’s a material object or a part of one’s identity. Every step of my journey, even the moments of doubt, led me back to myself.

My purpose now is to create art that reflects sustainability, resilience, and beauty, both in the materials I use and my life.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am an artist who creates both sculptures and paintings. My experiences as a child of Vietnamese immigrants and my evolving role as a father deeply influence my work. These experiences have instilled a strong sense of tension and legacy, motivating me to create pieces that resonate with viewers now and, hopefully, in the future.

I employ process-intensive methods, so pieces can take weeks or even years to complete. My work invites viewers to pause, look closely, and reevaluate the inherent beauty and value of the often-overlooked elements of life. Ultimately, I aim to surprise and delight viewers while shifting perceptions of value.

I channel this approach into several distinct series, each embodying different aspects of my artistic vision and themes of transformation, memory, and sustainability.

The Six-Pack Ring series offers a new perspective on waste and consumer habits. I created this series using clear plastic rings that suppliers discard when restocking drink vending machines in New York City. Over a year and a half, I developed a unique weaving technique to transform this plastic waste into forms inspired by various plants. Each piece is named after its plant inspiration and includes a number indicating the total number of six-pack rings used. This series is taking a back seat for now, but I’m itching to work on a new piece.

Les Reconfigurations sculptures emerged during my time in the Swiss Alps, serving as “memory boxes” and capturing the essence of my life there. These sculptures could not have originated elsewhere; they showcase the natural beauty of the found materials while honoring the community and the landscape that shaped them. I harvested pine cones from trees in the village and reclaimed wood from abandoned furniture and the local carpenter. I have three pieces in development, but several are available through Galerie Alpine, located in the Swiss village where I created the sculptures.

The Boole series transforms reclaimed bicycle rims into functional hanging sculptures. Inspired by mathematician Mary Boole, I weave paracord and elastic through the rim’s spoke holes to create curved patterns. When lit, these designs cast shifting shadows, encouraging viewers to see the extraordinary in everyday objects. Weaving these sculptures requires a lot of room. Right now, I don’t have enough space to make more of these sculptures, but when I do, I plan to add more colors, volume, and complex weaving techniques.

The Mistral series is my latest collection of paintings. I gleaned visual inspiration for the work from summers spent at Ladys Cove in Marblehead, Massachusetts, where I observed the low tide from the cliffs above. The series delves into personal perspective and individuals’ limited capacity for compassion and transforms a troublesome origin and a cynical message into works rich with vibrant colors, depth, and hidden elements.

Wafting starbursts, shoals of short brushstrokes, multicolored orbs, and organic forms coalesce into an abstract seascape. A lone, tiny lady crab lives in this world, hiding amongst the intricate patterns and shifting hues. The painting process requires physically demanding, repetitive work with metal straws, hair dryers, and leaf blowers in addition to traditional paintbrushes.

I’m preparing for a solo exhibition of my Mistral series, scheduled for next year in San Francisco. Observing the early layers of each piece is fascinating, as they become hidden in finished pieces. I’m documenting the progress of all the pieces I plan to produce for the solo show in a “secret” online gallery, which you can access by subscribing to my email list thought my website.

The established visual language of the series will remain, but I will present it in entirely new formats. I’m working on larger canvases and expanding into sculpture, incorporating marble vessels and Dura-Lar. I’ll also use metallic paints and brighter, more vibrant colors, giving the work a more optimistic feel.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Three key areas have shaped my journey: interdisciplinary learning, active engagement, and transformative resilience.

Interdisciplinary learning has taught me to embrace different roles and skills. The ability to wear many hats is especially valuable for visual artists, who are effectively entrepreneurs. My parents’ expectations pushed me to explore subjects I wouldn’t have chosen, but that exposure expanded my perspective. With a background in microbiology, design, and technology and experiences as a freelancer, corporate employee, and entrepreneur, I learned to draw connections between different fields and recognize that I can find value everywhere.

Active engagement means building meaningful relationships and participating in the community. It goes beyond business networking and the quid pro quo mentality. It’s about immersing myself in local culture and genuinely caring and investing in the places you live and visit. During my time in San Francisco, for example, I volunteered in leadership roles with local organizations to support different art communities. Engaging in this way has made my journey more rewarding. Success isn’t solely defined by personal achievements. It’s also about advocating for others and uplifting those around you.

Transformative resilience involves converting challenges into guides and creative expression. As a pessimist, I naturally excel at identifying roadblocks and focusing on negative emotions. However, I’ve learned to reframe them. I don’t view them as barriers to my goals. They illuminate my path while condensing my options, allowing me to concentrate my energy on the most viable routes forward. I also transmute negative experiences into art. Painful moments are often the most universal and resonant and can fuel meaningful creative work. This process involves brinkmanship; if I can harness those feelings instead of letting them overwhelm me, they become a powerful source of inspiration.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

I’m a head-in-the-clouds dreamer who is constantly blue-sky thinking and brainstorming, so big ideas can balloon out of control, and complex plans often twist into tangled messes. My life has not been particularly stable, and this instability has intensified significantly in the past several years with the birth of my two children and multiple international moves. I’m very familiar with feeling overwhelmed, but I’ve learned to navigate overwhelming situations more easily with a few strategies in place.

I set and respect constraints. Time, budget, or any number of pertinent guardrails help me create a plan of attack. Constraints are good, because they permit me to say “no”. For example, “I can’t do this, because I don’t have the time.” or ” I can’t buy that, because I don’t have the budget”. Saying “no” is liberating, especially when you can say it to yourself.

I prioritize and reprioritize. I remind myself what is the most important. I might have to revise the list as deadlines start approaching or things progress differently than I’d hoped. A strong vision of what is essential helps me eliminate distractions and clear my mind.

I strive to simplify everything possible: concepts, materials, inputs, collaborators, processes, schedules, designs, and execution. This is the KISS method. By eliminating complexity, I reduce mental costs, physical effort, and stress.

I murder my darlings, then pivot—this is an escalation of the KISS method. When I find myself at a dead end, and I don’t know what to do, or things don’t go how I want them to, no matter how hard I try, I reexamine the stuff I’m wedded to. Sometimes, ideas I’m most attached to are impediments in actuality. I have to let go of them to achieve what I truly want.

I seek out other perspectives. I can take a step back and then view my situation from another point of view. I might get an opinion from a friend, a spouse, or even an AI. The goal is to become unstuck from the doom spiral, so I can objectively assess the situation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.baokhangluu.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baokhangluu
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/baokhangluu
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/baokhangluu