Yehong Mao
Born 1976, China
Lives and works in Los Angeles, USA
Iris Yehong Mao (b. 1976) is a Los Angeles based painter whose work bridges intuition, abstraction, and the visionary. Trained in art from childhood, she studied at the Shanghai Academy of Arts and Crafts (1996) and the School of Fine Arts at Shanghai University (2000), where she was a student of influential contemporary artist Ding Yi. After graduating, she founded a successful design brand in Shanghai before relocating to the United States in 2017, where she recommitted fully to painting as a contemporary abstract artist. Mao’s kaleidoscopic compositions unfold like otherworldly landscapes—improvised, intuitive, and hovering between abstraction and representation. Forms appear to cohere and then dissolve into dream-like gestures, inviting viewers into a meditation on perception, transience, and the act of seeing. Her practice is rooted in joy, clarity, and a deeply felt creative process.
EDUCATION
2000 School of Fine Arts, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
1996 Shanghai Academy of Arts and Crafts, Shanghai, China
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026 Artefiera Bologna, Lupo Gallery, Bologna, Italy (Group)
2026 ‘Horsin’ Around,’ Latitude Gallery, New York, USA (Group)
2025 Untitled Art Fair Miami, Latitude Gallery, Miami, USA (Group)
2025 Art021 Shanghai, Latitude Gallery, Shanghai, China (Group)
2025 Verona’s Modern Art Fair, Lupo Gallery, Verona, Italy (Group)
2025 ‘Earth to Sky,’ Shrine Gallery, New York, USA (Group)
2025 Volta Basel, Latitude Gallery, Basel, Switzerland (Group)
2024 Potocki Center for Arts, Mission Viejo City Gallery, California, USA (Solo)
2023 ‘Rosebuds and Sidewalks Ends,’ Real Tinsel Gallery, Wisconsin, USA (Group)