MAO TAO

Lives and works in Paris, France

Mao Tao is an artist of the sensitive, the subtle. His work perpetually questions the visible and the mechanisms that allow us to capture what remains indiscernible to our eyes: impressions, memories and thoughts, in an ode to existence and its transience.

He is inspired by everything that makes up our daily lives and accepts with benevolence what contributes to its dysfunction. After studying at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Mao Tao has developed a multimedia conceptual practice that aims at conquering the impressions left by this world in motion. Both confident and nostalgic, his work infuses emotions with materiality. He invites viewers to apprehend small details with the same fascination as he does. Making extensive use of science in his creative process, Mao Tao seeks to merge rationality and reverie and create spaces that seem to straddle two worlds, pushing us to believe in both what we see and what we don’t see. There is something poetic about his attention to detail and the great patience he demonstrates. His artworks take their time, are built over time and are often made in series. There is also something comforting in his serene creations, often infused with a touch of humour and an immense consideration for the smallest phenomena. 

text by Prisca Meslier

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