Colette Fu received her M.F.A. in fine art photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2003, and soon after began devising complex compositions that incorporate photography and pop-up paper engineering. She has designed for award winning stop-motion animated commercials and free-lanced for clients including Vogue China, Canon Asia, and the Delaware Disaster Research Center. Her pop-up books are included in the Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many private and rare archive collections.
Her numerous awards include a Fulbright Research Fellowship to China, and grants from the Independence Foundation, Leeway Foundation, En Foco, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Puffin Foundation, and Society for Photographic Education. Her solo show "Wanderer/Wonderer " was presented at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in 2016/17. Curator Krystyna Wasserman stated, "Although Fu’s books are motionless, their exuberant shapes, intense colors, and closely interwoven pop-up pages give the impression of being alive. Her themes are largely inspired by her personal experiences, but her art also embodies — and inspires — feelings of joy, sorrow, and curiosity experienced by all of humankind...Each of Fu’s pop-up books tells a story. She is a fearless wanderer who shares her wonders and helps us understand the world around us."
A passionate educator, Fu also teaches artmaking as a way to give voice to communities through pop-up paper projects. She teaches pop-up courses and community workshops to marginalized populations at art centers, universities, and institutions internationally.
