David Diao
David Diao (China/USA, 1943) is a Chinese-American artist known for his abstract paintings, which combine a minimalist aesthetic with personal narratives and histories drawn from art itself. Born in Chengdu, Diao has lived and worked in New York for decades. His work frequently references icons of modernism and explores themes of identity, displacement, and the art market, elements that run through both his biography and his reflections on the history of abstract painting.
Diao's work has been exhibited internationally at institutions such as the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, Greene Naftali in New York, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut, The Glass House in Connecticut, and the Gund Gallery at Kenyon College in Ohio. He has also taken part in group exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, M+ in Hong Kong, Le Consortium in Dijon, and the Whitney Biennial, cementing his presence on the international contemporary art circuit.
His work is held in the permanent collections of leading institutions, including MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the M+ Collection in Hong Kong, among others.
