Born in Taiwan, Gao lives and works in New York City. She studied photography in Tokyo, Japan, at the Nihon Academy of Fine Arts University and in New York at the New York Film Academy. She practiced commercial and fashion photography while pursuing a career in Fine Art photography, combining Western and Eastern cultural elements to demonstrate how the socio-political environment shapes cultural identity. The work examines cultural differences in a rapidly changing space-time, through photography. Recently, her new work has focused on experimenting with mixed media in which images are transferred to different materials to create 3-dimensional pieces that bring the elements closer to the eye of the observer.
Gao's most recent important exhibitions were at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Art in 2024, Taiwan, the Tainan Art Museum in Taiwan in 2023, and Museo Marino Marini in Italy in 2019. Other activities include the National Museum of M.K. Ciurlionis in Kaunas, Lithuania, and the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art in China in 2010. Her work has been the subject of frequent exhibitions in Europe, Asia, and the US. Gao Yuan's work has been selected for the Hong Kong Sotheby's auction “The Woman with a Book”.
In 2023, she was in an artist residency on Governor's Island, New York City, with the Taiwanese American Arts Council. She was awarded second place at the MATA Taiwan Indigenous Film Festival 2022 and the Grand Prize at the Kaunas Lithuania Biennial in 2014. She was awarded the TERNA Contemporary Art Prize in Italy in 2013.
Solo Exhibitions
2025 – Entropy, Paris Koh Fine Arts, New York, NY
2023 – Who We Are, Where We Come from, One Station Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
2022 – Reverberation, Taipei Simon in89 Digital Cinema, Taipei, Taiwan
2019 – Museum of Marino Marini, Pistoia, Italy
2018 – Images of identity and territory, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2018 – “Living Sacrifices” Taipei Culture Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2016 – “Bagno D’Arte” at Bagno di Romagna Cultural Art Center, Italy
2015 – FONDAZION MARANGONI Art Center, Firenze, Italy
2013- 2014 National Museum of M.K. Clurlionis., Kaunas, Lithuania
2012 – Canvas International Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Group Exhibition
2025 – “Ocean in US: Southern Visions of Women Artists” at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Art, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2024 – Countering the Feminine Mystique at Paris Koh Fine Arts, New York, NY
2024 – Island Sunrise, Governors Island, New York
2023 – From Island to Island, Governors Island, New York
2023 – SHERO Taiwan Contemporary Women Art, Tainan Art Museum, Tainan, Taiwan
2022 – Chiayi International Art Documentary Film Festival, Chiayi Museum, Taiwan
2022 – MATA Taiwan Indigenous Film Festival Kaoshuing Pier-2 Art Center, Taiwan
2018 – Mortgaged Time, Red Gate Gallery 798, Beijing, China
2017 – Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, New York City, NY
2017 – MAAC ON THE MAP – Contemporary Art Exhibition at The Manhattan Art and Antiques Center, New York
2016 – AHM Gallery group show, Taipei, Taiwan
2016 – Taipei Photo group show, Taipei, Taiwan
2015 – “The Intimate Transgressions” at White Box Art Center, New York, NY
2014 – Performance Art with Francessca Arri, “A Piece of Paper,” curated by Sara Bortoletto, Spazio Ferramenta, Torino, Italy
2014 – The Asia Art Fair at Bohemian National Hall, New York
2014 – Taiwan Photo Art Fair at ShinKong Mitsukoshi Xinyi Place Cultural Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2014 – Taipei Photo Art Fair at Taipei HuaShan Cultural Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Education
1997 – New York Film Academy, New York, NY
1989 – MFA Nihon Academy of Fine Arts, Tokyo, Japan
1988 – BFA Tainan University of Technology Department of Fine Arts
Awards
2022 – Award Winner Taiwan Indigenous Film Festival, Taiwan
2021 – “Euro Fest” Finalist, European International Film Festival, Russia
2012 – Winner of Grand Prize, at Kaunas Biennale, Lithuania
2009 – TERNA Contemporary Art Prize, Rome, Italy
2004 – Winner of SOHO Photo Gallery Competition, New York City, NY
Public Collections
2024 – Taiwan National Museum of Modern Art, Tainan, Taiwan
2013 – Museum of Fine Art, Kaoshung, Taiwan
2013 – National Museum of M.K. Clurliones, Lithuania
2009 – Museum Palacio Cinsistorial, Cartegena, Spain
2009 Museum Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2012 has been selected at Hong Kong Sotheby's auction “The Woman with Book”
2011 interview by San Franscio PBS http://kqed02.streamguys.us/anon.kqed/topics/arts/gallery-crawl/0903-wolfe.mp4
2009 Selected Au féminin: Women Photographing book This important book reviews photography by women over the last 160 years, including such luminaries as Julia Margaret Cameron, Ruth Bernhard, Diane Arbus, and Cindy Sherman. published by the Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian