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Jenie Gao

@jeniegao

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Artist-small business owner. Consultant on equity and ethics. Build resilient ecosystems for artists and communities.

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Guiding Ethos on view @troutmuseumofart Oct 11, 2025 to Jan 18, 2026.

Life is full, time moves fast, and I am still processing the incredible grand opening weekend of the new TMA building and the opportunity I've had to be the guest curator of one of the inaugural exhibitions.

Guiding Ethos is an invitational group exhibition of 25 national and international artists whose practices engage storytelling as both record and resistance. The exhibition explores how art can serve as a tool for direct action, cultural stewardship, and community care.

Guiding Ethos was borne from a persistent question I have grappled with—is it possible to create ethical and honest work in the context of colonial systems, in a nation built on a foundation of enslavement, exploitation, and stolen land? What does genuine reclamation of cultural authorship mean?

My gratitude goes out to Christina Turner and Ann Weuve from the Trout Museum of Art, who invited me over a year ago to curate one of the inaugural exhibitions for the new museum. I also thank the TMA staff for all their hard work to bring this exhibition to life. I thank the 25 artists who said yes to being a part of Guiding Ethos. Thank you, all of you, for trusting and supporting my curatorial vision and making this exhibition possible.

Stay tuned for an exhibition catalogue and final documentation. For now, here are some photos from the grand opening weekend.

THE ARTISTS:

Brianna Hernández @briannalhb
Christine Wong Yap @christinewongyap
Christy Chan @christychanart
Daesha Devón Harris @daeshadevonharris
David Najib Kasir @davidnajibkasir
Emily Leach @emilymleach
Fatima Laster @fkldesigns
Ger Xiong @gerxiong55
Helen Lee @hotpinknoise
Khim Hipol @khim.mata.hipol
Kiki Salem @low_key_ki
Nafís M. White @nafis_m_white
Nina Ghanbarzadeh @nina_ghanbarzadeh
Nipinet Landsem @nipinet
Nirmal Raja @nirmal.raja
Noel Maghathe @nawal.magh
Rehab Nazzal @rehabnazzal
Richie Morales @richiemoralesarte
Rosy Petri @thisisparadisehome
Sarah K. Khan @sarahkkhan
Thea Canlas @theacanlas.art
Tshab Her @tshabher
Valaria Tatera @valariatatera_art
Whess Harman @ndn_bebop
William PK Carter @baeslleaf taken in Trout Museum of Art by @jeniegao

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24

a year ago

Opening night of my solo exhibition, Where Mountain Cats Live, @gruntgallery was magical. ✨

If you missed the opening or want to take in the show without the crowds, visit by Jan 17. Join for low sensory days and blind-led tours.

Thank you to everyone who showed up for the reception and talk, for engaging with this work wholeheartedly. Many of you I’ve spoken with in the weeks since. It means so much to know that this work resonates with you. 💛

Thank you to the remarkable grunt team, who are simply the best. I felt so supported throughout the process, and love grunt’s focus on accessibility. There are many ways you can engage with this show: visual, tactile, auditory, and more. Shout-out to @katrinasarah for curating and @kdotca for building custom structures (the magnifying glass holder!) and literal heavy lifting.

I spanned the continent to make this work, from @mashousestudio to @empireofdirtresidency to @deerlakeartists with @bbyartgallery to @wsworkshop. I finished the work locally @malaspinaprintmakers and @fablabvancouver. Tech support from Christopher Patterson, Woody, and Chris Petrone. Frames by @kent.framing.vancouver.

This work will travel to Pratt Munson Gallery in New York in Feb.

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Where Mountain Cats Live is a lush invitation for strengthening community bonds, while acknowledging the precarity that we often build our roots upon.

The lazy susan table features hand-carved images of rabbits and cats in a cyclical chase, from a story that Gao’s mother tells of her bravery while facing ‘mountain lions’ outside her childhood home in Keelung, Taiwan. The work captures a moment when a mother’s stories are suspended between a child’s imagination and an elder’s recollection, and as Gao deals with their present-day dilemmas: predatory realtors encroaching upon their mother’s home in rural Kansas, pollution and land destruction, and the resilience of native flora and fauna that nevertheless persist and return.

Where Mountain Cats Live is an investigation of material culture, an homage to the ‘imagination of the oppressed,’ and a love letter to Jenie Gao’s mother and extended communities who, in the face of uncertainties, maintain a sense of home. by @jeniegao

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10 months ago

There is community in everything, including grief.

Let this be the basis of your solidarity, rather than your despair.

It isn't easy to read—or watch—a seemingly endless stream of devastating news.

But it is harder, more wasteful work to ignore the hurt in the world than it is to acknowledge it.

It is a small thing to hold grief and compassion for other people. Don't ever let anyone persuade you that it is too much work to care.

Community is the greatest fortune that we have. Be grateful for yours, and have space in your grief for the loss of others.

Real intimacy—in family, in friendships, in relationships, in immediate and extended communities—depends on our willingness to turn towards one another at the hardest moments.

Your advocacy does not need to look like everyone else's. But you do need to do something.

What forms will your solidarity take? How will you strengthen community trust via your actions, even and especially at the most intense, collectively traumatizing times?

How do your closest friends know that you are a safe person to be with?

How do you expand that sense of safety and support far beyond them, to acquaintances, and to people you may not even know, who have no reason to believe that you care?

Stop the g3n0cide. Permanent ceasefire now. Arms embargo and sanctions now.

Free Pal 3stine.

Resources and ways to help in story highlights🕊️🍉 by @jeniegao

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1

2 years ago

Between us all, I’ll hold us all
Handwoven dye-sublimation on
synthetic chiffon
20 x 25 cm
2025

Up now as a part of Over Everything at the @artacademyofcincinnati curated by @jeniegao in conjunction with the @fotofocuscincinnati biennial by @jeniegao

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3 hours ago

10 years ago today, I gave a TEDx talk in Madison.

I don't know why other people thought it was a good idea to put this twenty-something-year-old on a stage, but they did, and I'm grateful.

The title of my TEDx talk is “The Power and Purpose of Creativity.” In my talk, I argue that creativity is a survival skill, and that creativity doesn't simply go away when societies divest in it. Rather, people will find uses for their creativity, for good or harmful purposes, or for whatever survival requires. Therefore, one of the best things we can do as people is invest in, nurture, and cultivate creativity in our communities.

It took a year for me to finally watch my own TEDx talk (I don't like to watch recordings of myself). Which is funny because the talk itself has done a lot for me. It convinced a total stranger at the time (Dr. Cameron Cartiere, who would later become my MFA supervisor, and who saw the talk long before ever meeting me), to write a letter of recommendation for me for the Fulbright Canada scholarship so I could study with her. While I didn't ultimately win the Fulbright, knowing how readily another person believed in and invested time in me was enough for me to take the leap of faith and move to Vancouver.

In the years since, I've occasionally revisited this talk, and while me in my late thirties would have given a different talk, I still love the core message that 28-year-old me wanted to share with the world. I also really like them as a person.

To my younger self (and anyone else who relates), I've joked for a long time that I'm a lifelong old person. Perhaps the harder thing to admit when you're an old soul is all the ways that you're still a kid. You're used to being self-directed, to forging a path where there isn't one, and to making hard decisions that nobody else wants to make (but everyone wants to have an opinion about). The best thing you can do is stay true to yourself and other people throughout it all. That won't earn you likeability. But it will earn you the kind of friends, colleagues, and collaborators that live like the future we want is already here, and thus create the necessary circumstances to make that future possible. by @jeniegao

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2 days ago

Join for our artist talk today! Noel Maghathe will be talking about her work with Curator Jenie Gao from 11:30 – 12:30 pm in the Lecture Hall. This event is free and open to the public. 💬

Noel Maghathe | In Conversation
Thursday, October 15th
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Lecture Hall

In her work and upcoming exhibition, Over Everything, Noel uses photo weaving as a means to process memory, time, joy, absence, and longing. Embedded with words and motifs, the fabric becomes a means of communication with the past—messages to a younger self, to close and distant relatives. Over Everything examines how memory is shaped, altered, and reconstructed through the act of retrieval, initiating a dialogue between longing, connection, and remembrance.

Over Everything is part of the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial: The Long View. Noel Maghathe, AAC Class of 2017, is a Palestinian-American multidisciplinary artist whose work has been exhibited internationally from New York and Cincinnati to Jordan, Palestine, Tasmania, and Helsinki. In Over Everything, Maghathe draws from familial archives, photographs, words, and woven imagery to explore memory, identity, heritage, and the search for home. By reconstructing moments they never personally experienced, Maghathe blurs the boundaries between truth and fabrication while considering how memory changes across time, distance, borders, and generations.

Over Everything will be displayed in the McClure Gallery from October 14-31, 2026.

Opening Reception 📷
Friday, October 16, 2026, 5 - 8 PM
1212 Jackson Street, Art Academy of Cincinnati

FOLLOW THE ARTIST: @nawal.magh
CURATOR: @jeniegao

#artacademyofcincinnati #fotofocusbiennial #palestinianart #fotofocus #thelongview @fotofocuscincinnati by @jeniegao

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5 days ago

Start your holiday shopping at the Creaturehood show. Saturday, October 17 and Sunday October 18. Noon to 4pm. Duct Tape Gallery hosts a group exhibition and photobook launch of Mark Mizgala’s “Findings”.

“Creaturehood” is a celebration of animals, critters, and furry beasts—from beloved companions and backyard visitors to wild animals, birds, insects, and mythological creatures. With affection, curiosity, and wonder, 28 local artists capture the diversity, beauty, and vitality of our non-human friends.

Art feature: Jenie Gao @jeniegao Invitation art: Jenn Nikkel @jennnikkel

“Findings” is a 120-page monograph featuring still-life photographs by Mark Mizgala. Informed by Victorian scientific inquiry, these bell jar assemblages reflect tensions, counterpoints, and contradictions in present-day life.

Participating artists: Thomas Anfield @thomasanfieldartwork, Werner August @werneraugust, Brittney Appleby @brittneyappleby, Sophia Bakos @milky.plush, Geoff Carter @geoffcarter98, Laura Clark @laura_marie_clark, Valerie Durant @valeriedurant.art, Roquela Fernandez @roqualoqua, Bruce Freedman @brucefreedmancollageworlds, Jenie Gao @jeniegao, Eleanor Hannan @eleanorhannan, Char Hoyt @chardotcalm, Emily Janek @lovebug.incorporated, Christina Kenton @crabtina, Ashley Kim @array_of, My Name Is Scot @mynameisscot, Elaine Mari @e.elainemari, Carol Mizgala, Mark Mizgala @mark.mizgala, Jenn Nikkel @jennnikkel, Emily Raedts @eremily, Bruce Spanger @bruce.d.spangler, Jeremy Isao Speier @jeremyisaospeier_artist, Erin Taniguchi @erintaniguchi, Paul Tupper @pftupper, Annie Wilkinson @anniewilkinsonart taken in Duct Tape by @jeniegao

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6 days ago

Join us for a Fireside Chat with Artist @nawal.magh and Curator @jeniegao this Thursday, October 15, from 11:30 am - 12:30 pm, about Noel Maghathe’s exhibition, Over Everything, on view at the @artacademyofcincinnati's McClure Gallery. These programs are a part of @fotofocuscincinnati Biennial 2026.

Through photographs pulled from Maghathe’s familial archives printed on chiffon and woven with wool, Over Everything explores the relationship between the stories we inherit and the memories we create and reconstruct.

FROM JENIE GAO: Noel and I first connected as previous artists-in-residence @mashousestudio. When I first learned about Noel’s work, I was immediately drawn to the way in which Noel layers materiality with space. The delicate chiffon holding the prints becomes inseparable from the light passing through. Images of Noel’s relatives from her familial archives in Palestine are suspended in time, yet ever-changing as you move through the installation. I had the honor of previously curating a smaller version of the work, Over Everything, for the exhibition, Guiding Ethos, at the Trout Museum of Art. In this expanded installation at AAC’s McClure Gallery, five cords holding the chiffon prints stretch outward like guitar strings. As visitors move through the suspended cloths, they will catch glimpses of increasingly intimate portraits of people, landmarks, and land, woven with wool, etched into wood.

What a treasure it is to work with you again, Noel.

Everyone, please join us for a conversation about Noel’s arts practice and exhibition this Thursday, October 15, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm, and for the opening reception the day after on October 16, from 5 to 8 pm. Links in bio for details.

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THE ARTIST: Noel Maghathe is a Palestinian-American multidisciplinary artist. Through sculpture, performance, and light, they explore themes of identity, cultural memory, and longing.

THE CURATOR: Jenie Gao is a Taiwanese-Chinese American artist and curator. Their curatorial work emphasizes local stories with global perspectives.

Photo credits Noel Maghathe

#fotofocus #fotofocusbiennial #photoarchives #palestine #cincinnatiart taken in Art Academy of Cincinnati by @jeniegao

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7 days ago

💭 Are you an independent or emerging visual artist who wants to build a sustainable creative practice, while also working towards more equity in the arts? Join us for our next artist salon with Jenie Gao!

✨Artist Salon: Jenie Gao on Business Basics and Art Ethics for Artists
🗓 Sunday, October 18, 2026
⏰ 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
🌎 Location: Creativity Lab, Richmond Cultural Centre Annex (across the plaza from Richmond Cultural Centre)
🔗 RSVP with link in bio!

Join artist and cultural worker Jenie Gao to learn about pricing your artwork and creative services, business planning, and best practices to help you build a financially viable arts profession that aligns with your values. Designed as an interactive session, the program will include discussion, audience questions, and opportunities to meet and learn from other artists in attendance.

Limited spaces, RSVP requested.

Image: Jenie Gao, 2025, Courtesy of the artist.
Image description in alternate text. ID: Jenie Gao with short dark hair and a longer swept-over section poses against a black background, wearing a patterned gray blazer over a striped shirt. by @jeniegao

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13 days ago

Join us at CAMOC for an Artist Talk with Jenie Gao on Saturday, October 10 at 3 PM, presented as part of A Plot of One’s Own 一亩三分地.

In her talk, artist Jenie Gao will share about their practice, the ideas and experiences that inform their work, and their contribution to A Plot of One’s Own 一亩三分地.. Join us for an afternoon of conversation and a closer look at the stories behind the work currently on view at CAMOC.

Jenie Gao (they/she) is a multidisciplinary artist working across printmaking, installation, public art, civic practice, and community storytelling. A second-generation Taiwanese-Chinese American, their work examines artists’ labor, cultural power, and the ways communities create resilience, connection, and change.
Jenie’s work is held in more than forty institutional collections, including the Library of Congress and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Their practice brings together art and civic engagement, asking us to think about who gets to shape culture, whose labor is valued, and how creative work can build stronger communities.

Saturday, October 10, 2026 | 3 PM
CAMOC | 238 W 23rd St, Chicago, IL 60616
4th Floor Reading Room

Free and open to the public. RSVP through the link in bio. by @jeniegao

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14 days ago

Words are cheap. Reconciliation requires that we put what we learn into practice.

For National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, I have donated to the following organizations:
🧡 @adycenter provides services to Indigenous youth and young adults including emergency shelter, permanent housing, and services to keep Indigenous families together.
🧡 @irsssbc delivers essential, Indigenous‑led wellness, emotional, and crisis support services to Indian Residential School Survivors, intergenerational families, and communities across British Columbia.
🧡 @sacredearthorg is an Indigenous women-led organization dedicated to reducing Indigenous communities’ dependency on fossil fuels and building resilience and clean energy infrastructure in the face of climate change.
🧡 @honouringourgrandmothers [Sacred Rock Community Society] is a multiyear project by artist @hope.spence.art, including the creation of several traveling chests by multicultural artists who have a historic relationship with Indigenous peoples.
🧡 @unidoswi empowers Latine and marginalized communities to overcome domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. They provide language support for survivors to access services and work to break cycles of violence.

Giving isn’t easy during economically hard times. Even so, if you have the means, I encourage you to give what you can.

You don’t have to give a lot. As a self-employed artist and small business owner who grew up in a low-income family, who has often been the sole breadwinner in my household, I’ve made it a priority to give regularly. Since 2020, I have given over $10,500 CAD [$7,500 USD] of my own earnings to nonprofits, mutual aid, and bail funds, not counting cash gifts for which there are no receipts.

I give not because it’s easy, but because I love what I do. I want to live in a generous world. Perhaps that’s what you want, too. 🧡

Image 1: monotype print, The Color of Jade #13. Jade is worn for protection. This work is a gesture of protection that extends beyond oneself to others who need to be kept safe.

Image 2-8: screenshots of receipts + Jenie Gao Studio’s social justice commitment.

#truthandreconciliation #residentialschools Monotype print in colours medium jade green, dark crimson, gray, black, and white in abstract patterns alluding to jade pendants. by @jeniegao

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19 days ago

One year since my solo exhibition, The Integrity of a Story, at Alberta Printmakers Society @abprintmakers, which was on view from September 26, 2025 - November 14, 2025.

I created much of the artwork in this show during my 2025 residency @wsworkshop, with the support of their incredible staff.

Thank you to the team at Alberta Printmakers Society for being gracious hosts, to Executive Director @tracy.w.c for your hard work and support, and to the Calgary community for being so welcoming each time that I've visited.

#contemporaryprintmaking #woodcut #artinstallation #taiwaneseamericanart #calgaryart taken in Calgary, Alberta by @jeniegao

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23 days ago