Xiaoying Cao
[New York, United States]
Art Yourself Atelier is delighted to invite you to "Into Merged Reality, An Alternative Fantasy," an online solo exhibition that unveils the mesmerizing world of Xiaoying Cao, a promising Chinese artist blossoming in the heart of New York New York. This exhibition serves as a gateway to a realm where the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, offering a glimpse into a transformative artistic journey that harmonizes the soft textures of knitwear with the solidity of modern structures. Join us in witnessing a fresh perspective on art, where imagination meets material, crafting a narrative that is as intricate as it is beautiful.
Artist's Biography
Xiaoying(Steph) Cao, born in China, is a mixed media knitted artist and textile designer based in New York New York. With the background in studying studio art, fashion and textiles, she conveys her perspectives of alternating reality with illusionary fantasy through her artistic creations, using multiple media and unique aesthetics. Steph explores the innovative knitting structures and creates unconventional three-dimensional soft sculptures to interact with various materials. Exploring the engagement with the female body and the intimate domestic area, she creates a healing and comforting atmosphere to express her own dreamy and imaginative reality. She merges the wearable knitting pieces into the spatial environment, showing the approaches of transforming, connecting, and blending.
About the Solo Exhibition
Exploring unconventional knitting structures and redefining the interaction between normative soft ‘fiber’ and solid materials, I use techniques investigating three-dimensional knitting structures with extreme sheer and soft textures, creating dramatic abstract forms and soft volumes. Bringing the idea of “Alternative reality”, I build a modular system of texture combinations, creating knitting and solid modular units of 3d structures and exploring the engagement with the female body. The theme and core notion of my artistic creation comes from the merging of my own dreaming and imagination illusions from fragments of memories, combined with reality. Investigating the transformable “knitwear” and “closet”, I convey the idea of the engagement between individuals and the intimate domestic area. I create infinite possibilities of structural explorations of soft sculptural forms, exploring the multiple dimensions through unique knitting formations with solid constructions. The supportive elements also work as the main components of the modules creating the potential and possibilities of varying the composition, the silhouette, the color palette, and the layering perspectives using the transiting systems I create. My wish is to create a unique “wardrobe” in which people could apply the modules blocks I create to customize, recreate and remake the outfits. With the exploration of reutilizing, the modular system, including unconventional knitting segments and laser-cut acrylic blocks is easily varying and transforming, extending the life cycle of the softness of fabrications and solid installation.
Her Art Exhibition Experience
2023/05 · New York, United States
Portal, MFA Textiles Graduation Show
2023/03 · New York, United States
Echoing Stiches Textile Exhibition
2018/05 · Saratoga Springs, United States
Graduation Show Studio Art Major at Tang Museum, Skidmore College
2017/03 · Saratoga Springs, United States
The Juried Show at Schick Art Gallery, Skidmore College
Her Study Experience
2021/8 - 2023/5 · New York, United States
Majoin in MFA Textiles, Newschool, Parsons School of Design
2020/7 - 2021/3 · London, United Kingdom
Major in Graduate Diploma Fashion & Textile, Royal Collage of Art
2014/9 - 2018/6 · Saratoga Springs, United States
Major in Studio Art, Skidmore College