Maia Chao is an interdisciplinary artist who works collaboratively in performance, video, sculpture, and social practice. Her projects examine informal and formal institutions, such as family, schools, museums, language, economic systems and legal systems.
Chao has shown at The Shed, Tufts University Art Galleries, Brown University Granoff Center for the Arts, RISD Museum, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery at Parsons, and Cuchifritos Gallery. She co-created Look at Art. Get Paid. Recent fellowships include: Fine Arts Work Center, Andrew W. Mellon Residency at Haverford College, Asian American Arts Alliance of NYC, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pioneer Works, and Queer|Art. Her work has been discussed in BOMB Magazine and Hyperallergic.
A Fulbright grantee, Chao holds a BA in Anthropology from Brown University and an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). She is currently a 2022-23 Pew Fellow, a member of the Philadelphia art collective Vox Populi, and a full-time Professor of Social Practice at Maryland Institute College of Design in Baltimore.