Chiaw-Weai Loo was born in Malaysia and graduated from KU School of Architecture. After joining the workforce as an architect for a few years, she became a member of Gallery XII (Wichita, Kansas) in November of 2011 and turned her focus to the fine arts.
Since then, her entries have been selected five times into the National Watercolor Exhibition at Mark Arts. Chiaw-Weai has had works exhibited in other exhibitions including the Wichita Art Council Juried Exhibition, Derby Art Council Exhibition, and Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery Invitational. One of her paintings is in the collection of the Kansas Health Foundation. The Wichita Botanica Chinese Garden features her designs as leak windows and three of her paintings digitally transferred into tile murals.
Chiaw-Weai’s main painting media is based on ink and watercolor Chinese brush painting on Xuan Paper (aka rice paper). She likes the challenge of using rice papers to paint. Though requiring good control of brush strokes, these papers diffuse the layers of colors and energy delightfully. Other than watercolor on rice paper, she also does wall murals— her largest one being over 20ft long in the office of Aquillius Corporation in San Diego, CA.
The cultural nature of her artistry has also led Chiaw-Weai to be involved in the local community in related areas. She has served on several boards in the past, e.g the Wichita Asian Association, Wichita Chinese Association, and the Botanica Board of Trustees. She is a past president of Gallery XII. She is also an avid collector of orchids and is an enthusiastic participant of the Wichita plant lover community.
