Richard Alexander Lou was raised in San Diego, CA and Tijuana, BCN, MX. Richard grew up in a biracial family which was spiritually, and intellectually guided by both an anti-colonialist Chinese father and a culturally affirming Mexicana mother. An important and formative aspect of Lou’s life was working at the National City Swap Meet starting at the age of 9 at his parents stall, first selling artificial plants and flowers then pillows and comforters. The family business lasted over 20 years and was instrumental in revealing the flexible nature of community and in funding Lou’s education. Lou earned an A.A. in Fine Art in 1981 at Southwestern College, Chula Vista, CA; a B.A. in Art at California State University at Fullerton, CA. in 1983; and a M.F.A. in Fine Art at Clemson University, Clemson, SC. in 1986. In 2017, Lou was inducted, as part of the inaugural class, into the Alumni Hall of Fame at Clemson University for his contributions to the arts at a national level. Most recently, the Smithsonian will be including a series of interviews in video and transcript form of Lou’s life and work in the American Art Archive as part of their ongoing series, targeted availabilty April 2024.

As a Chicano Artist the consistent themes he has explored are White Privilege and the subjugation of his community by the Dominant Culture. Lou has exhibited in venues that would include: Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška / Koroška galerija likovnih umetnosti (KGLU), Slovenia; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL; Wing Luke Museum, Seattle, WA; Landmark Gallery, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX; Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City DF, Mexico; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX; Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA; Cornerhouse Art Gallery, Manchester, England; the 3rd International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum, Istanbul, Turkey; Dong-A University, Busan, South Korea; Miami Museum, Miami, FL; Museum of Photographic Arts, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Mexican Fine Arts Museum, Chicago, IL; Otis School of Art and Design, Otis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Boston, MA; Aperto 90` Section, La Biennale Di Venezia, Venice, Italy; Grey Art Gallery, New York University, NY, NY; Dia Foundation, NY, NY; Artist Space, NY, NY.

His art work has been published and/or cited in various newspapers, magazines, catalogs, electronic media, and over 40 scholarly books that would include: Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology, edited by Jennifer Gonzalez, Chon Noriega, Ondine Chavoya, and Teresa Romo, Duke University Press 2019; The Routledge Companion to Latina/o Popular Culture, edited by Frederick Aldama, Routledge Press 2016; Born of Resistance: Cara a Cara Encounters with Chicana/o Visual Culture, Edited by Scott L. Baugh and Victor A. Sorell, University of Arizona Press 2015; among others. Whiteness: A Wayward Construction, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA. 2003. Essays by Tyler Stallings, Ken Gonzales-Day, Amelia Jones, David R. Roediger; Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art, Hispanic Research Center at Arizona State University, Included in two separate entries, one as an individual artist, another with collaborator Robert J. Sanchez as Los Anthropolocos; Hecho en Califas: The last Decade, Plaza de la Raza, Los Angeles, CA., 2000. Curated exhibition and wrote curator’s essay “The Secularization of the Chicano Visual Idiom: Diversifying the Iconography”; AMERICAN VISIONS/VISIONES DE LAS AMERICAS: ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL IDENTITY IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE, Arts International (NY), Fall 95, co-edited by Mary Jane Jacob, Ivo Mesquita, and Noreen Tomassi; MAPPING THE TERRA IN: NEW GENRE PUBLIC ART, University of California Press, fall 95, edited by Suzanne Lacy; ENGLISH IS BROKEN HERE: NOTES OF CULTURAL FUSION IN THE AMERICAS, The New Press, New York City, COCO FUSCO. His artwork has been on the cover of 5 books, the most recent Chicano/a Art: A Critical Anthology, Duke University Press 2019 was included by ArtNews in the top 100 art books of the decade.

Lou served for a total of 29 years as department Chair at three institutions of higher education, 8 years at San Diego Mesa College, 6 years at Georgia College, and 15 years at the University of Memphis. Lou has curated/organized over 50 exhibitions, exhibited his work in over 150 exhibitions, and he continues to produce and exhibit while teaching in the Department of Art at the University of Memphis.