Yao Mou In

Education
2025–2026 University of Oxford (MFA Fine Art)
2020–2023 Rhode Island School of Design (BFA Painting: First Class Honours)
2019–2020 New York University (Studio Art)

Residencies
2025 Air 3331, Tokyo, Japan
2024 Northwards, Chongqing, China
2023–2024 The Young Artist Residency Program of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China
2018 Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China

Solo Exhibition
2024 Thin Sheets of Needs, MocA Pavilion, Shanghai, China

Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
The 22nd Century, 5+1 Gallery, Guangzhou, China
Forget Your Body, Dolphin Gallery, Oxford, England
Glorious Ashes, Chinese Contemporary Art Museum, Chongqing, China
Submerged Visions: The Psychoanalysis of Water, ShangART SUHE, Shanghai, China

2024
Unweave a Rainbow, Madein Gallery, Shanghai, China
Shuttle Bus, Northwards, Chongqing, China
Aqui e Agora, UCCLA, Lisbon, Portugal
Two Kilometers Away from The Chongqing Belt Expressway, Luo Zhongli Art Museum, Chongqing, China

2023
Arboromorphic Poetry, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China What I Felt for You Was Love, Afternoon Projects, Vancouver, CA
Bliss Information, Gelman Gallery, Providence, RI
The Space in Between, RISD Painting Gallery, Providence, RI

2022 Identity as Context, Memory as Content, Brown University, Providence, RI
2021 Art Macao: Macao International Art Biennale, Macau SAR, China
2019 Macau New Woman Contemporary Art Exhibition, Macau SAR, China

Publications
2026 ‘Gochujang Blues’, Art Review Oxford, #14
2024 ‘Almost Close to Very Nearby’, Currents Magazine, #11
2023 ‘Saved by Zero’, 新九叶 [New Nine Leaves]

Awards
2026 Egerton Coghill Landscape Prize, Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford
2026 Monika Tesarova Award, Kellogg College, University of Oxford
2023 Florence Leif Scholarship, Rhode Island School of Design

Gleb: In works featuring stripes, dots, or beadwork, there’s a sense of industrial design — a certain rigor, coldness, precision — and only on closer inspection do you notice the erotic anime girls. Can you tell me more about this pairing — how do you see the relationship between the industrial rigor and the sensuality of the imagery?

Yao:

Gleb: In your artist statement, you mention questioning a desire for self-objectification. Can you elaborate on this idea?

Yao:

Gleb: The images and materials you work with function as affects rather than symbols. Are you able to maintain distance from them while working, or do the images and materials sometimes pull you in?

Yao: