Maia Chao '13 Artist Talk

Maia Chao is an artist making anthropological work across performance, video, sculpture, and public practice. She has been commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art, Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Times Square Arts, The Shed, and MoMA Education. Additional projects have been presented at the RISD Museum, Bronx Museum, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Boston Center for the Arts, Smack Mellon, and Oregon Contemporary. She has completed fellowships and residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center, Pioneer Works, and Queer|Art, among others. Named a Pew Fellow in 2022, she attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2023.

For the 2026 Whitney Biennial, Chao presented BEING MOVED, a new performance commission. She is currently a 2026 United States Artists Fellow. 

Chao is full-time faculty in Interdisciplinary Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore and resides in Philadelphia. 

American Idle, 2025. Performance by Maia Chao, commissioned by Times Square Arts. Photo: Maria Baranova.