Kenny WaiFu Lui was born in 1985 in Hong Kong. Lui currently lives and works in Honolulu, Hawaii. A BFA graduate from the University of Hawaii Manoa, Lui is interested in art marking as a “cathartic release”. The process of making marks, layers, and texture is Lui's way to overcome the emotions of traumatic experiences. He uses repetitive marks to create layers, mimics of memories that replay in his mind evoking past trauma. He breaks and smashes oil pastels with his hands on the substrate to build up texture. For Lui, this is a cathartic process; using physical pain to release emotional pain.