Yeni Mao is an omnivorous appropriator of cultural references. He does not discriminate; all timely concerns and popular idols are his artistic fodder. Reflecting on a cosmopolitan childhood spent in Canada, America, Sweden and Taiwan, Mao uses bits and pieces plucked from diverse narratives to map a new cultural landscape. While his early exposure to these influences was serendipitous, today Mao determines the peculiar poetry that arises from such disparate sources.
The meticulously layered kung fu heroes of his Cluster series and the thoughtfully placed gold-leafed bananas that comprise Adventures on the Golden Mountain characterize the inherent tension in Mao's work. His assembly of images frequently points to structural similarities between organizational bodies, from the cellular level to the cosmic level. Similarly, his obsessive repetition demonstrates the organic expansion of simple to complex ideas.
Mao's collages, sculptures, and paintings join the personal and the universal through cyclical interpretation and reinterpretation. The interstices between these two spheres are the fertile territory in which Mao often finds himself, the place where he best draws unexpected parallels. Through the juxtaposition of cultural icons that would normally be considered incompatible, new meaning is found.
Mao's multi-disciplinary approach to the recurring themes in his work—the cult of celebrity; identity (sexual, national, and otherwise); natural systems—demonstrates the holism of his concerns across media and how these themes inform each other. As a whole, his oeuvre presents a visually compelling and emotionally evocative experiment in understanding. The duplicity of meaning is not just a by-product of the densely layered works; it is also the conceptual point of departure.

Christina Vassallo
Curator
2009

My work is based in the general idea of amalgamation, an open-ended inquiry into authenticity, the fracturing and disambiguation of cultural histories. These fundamental ideas are put forth through forms of nature and the perversities of nature, under the umbrella of pop culture and in the light of the modern world. I have a propensity towards medieval art and art of the Enlightenment, for the mythos of transformation and metamorphosis, and any steps towards anomie and transgression. My interest lies in the manifestation of personal superstitions, the voodoo of nostalgia, and contemporary animism. Each project takes a different form and variable media, concentrated in sculpture, installation, and collage, using systematic compounds both metaphorically and as a physical gesture. All the works are facets revolving around a central thematic core. Adaptation and transformation is the root of cultural evolution.

Yeni Mao
2010