ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a multidisciplinary artist. My work has taken many shapes, including film photography, experimental graphic design, free drawing, sound, poetic writing, installation, and performance. I explore the connections between self and the outside world through spaces and times in different scales.
Each material has its personalities. I enjoy feeling the materials/mediums, trying to listen to them, and then constructing relationships. Each work is a collaboration with them. Even though I am not performing, the work is still performing. This is all about my emotional life of being. I am always wondering about the reason each thing happened. I like to work with my intuition first and then discover the hidden traces behind it. Instincts never hide what they think or do, which is more sincere than mine. I am not creating a form but finding a sense of belonging in the voids to connect the self to the outside world. Making work is a way of finding myself. My work explores the fantasy of ideal freedom that is extracted from the real world. Everybody possesses personal emotions that are connected to society. Standing up for who I am is empowering others. When the audience is ready, they’ll join at the time. Is it black, white, void, or what else?
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chen Gao is an interdisciplinary artist and designer based in Detroit, MI, and Hartsville, SC, USA. She received her MFA degree in 2D Design at Cranbrook Academy of Art, USA. Currently, Gao serves as the assistant professor of art at Coker University, SC, USA. She used to teach graphic design at the School of Art + Design at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA. Gao’s work has been celebrated in exhibitions and projects nationally and internationally, including the Library Mural Project at Toledo Museum of Art Reference Library and An Inspired Age at Toledo Museum of Art. She was selected to exhibit work at the Van GOGH Art Gallery in Madrid, Spain, Holy Art Gallery in London, :iidrr gallery in NYC, and Jackson Junge Gallery in Chicago. Gao had received the artist residency in ecoSuites, Greece. She had interviewed with Blurb, Cultivate Arts & Education, Insight of an Eco Artist, and Artist Talks Magazine. Gao has an upcoming solo show at the CICA Museum in South Korea in 2024. She is interested in continuing her professional studio practice in association with art education.
© Chen Gao