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Artist CV
"Dreaming is awaking. Visualization uncovers vision.
Focusing on the intense yet vitalizedly balanced entanglement and coexistence between mechanical and living beings, Grace Tao’s artworks visualize the core of the dreaming mechanism that is not fake or illusional but just more real than “reality,” if we insist on this non-essential normalized delineation. A higher structural unification of dynamics, as the deepest reality veiled in the visual reality as a form of cognitive normalization, is marvellously visually represented through the distortion, abstraction, and innovative re-integration of real-life objects through Grace’s unique contradiction and dynamic harmonization framework.
Such a dream mechanism cannot work without proactive reversion of the presumed structure of gaze and objectification. The camera, as the instrument for gazing, becomes the gazed; the gears, as the channel of structured mechanical movements, are deprived of the structure from which they are entitled meaning. Then, at this very instant when the reality is stunned and visual normalization fades, when instrumentality is no longer valid, colours and plants – the disordered and the very soft – break in and build the dream vision. Thus, when the new rhythm of movements is re-introduced into vision, they are no longer instrumentalized and normalized but back into the very beginning moment when the impulse of moving and creating appears, and there are numerous forms of them waiting to be realized."
----- Chen Chen, an influential Art Critic @ Vancouver, Canada
Artist Biography
Grace Tao is a Canadian painter whose work explores the intersection of mechanics and human experience. She began painting at a young age, but her path first led her through Engineering and Economics before she returned fully to art. After immigrating to Canada, she pursued her passion and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University in Montreal, majoring in Painting & Drawing and minoring in Computation Art. These experiences—combined with her life as an immigrant, parent, and entrepreneur—continue to shape the way she approaches art. Over time, she has become fascinated with mechanical themes—vehicles, motorcycles, and cameras—which she sees as metaphors for life itself: layered, structured, and beautiful, yet often governed by forces beyond our control.
Artist Statement
I began painting at a young age, but my path first led me through Engineering and Economics before I returned fully to painting. These experiences—combined with my life as an immigrant, parent, and entrepreneur—continue to shape the way I approach art. Over time, I have become fascinated with mechanical themes, which I see as metaphors for life itself: layered, structured, and beautiful, yet often governed by forces beyond our control.
For me, art is both a process of expression and connection. When the emotions that move me can also move the viewer, a silent resonance is created. My paintings explore the interplay of real and unreal, freedom and discipline, nature and man-made structures. Through color, texture, and composition, I aim to capture these contradictions: the harmony within conflict, and the beauty within imperfection.
Painting is my way of deconstructing and reconstructing experience—a mechanical process that becomes an emotional outlet, a dialogue between myself, the medium, and the world around me.
Education:
Concordia University, BFA
Major in Painting & Drawing, Minor in Computation Arts.
ARTIST TALKS
2025 Oct 25 - Jericho Arts Centre @ Vancouver, BC
2025 June – Lipont Gallery @ Richmond, BC
2025 Feb – Lipont Gallery @ Richmond, BC
2024 Dec. – NPC Arts Centre @ South Surrey, BC
2024 May – R&C Academy of Art + Design @ South Surrey, BC
2023 May – Royal Bank of Canada @ South Surrey, BC
SOLO EXHIBITION
2025 Oct 23- Nov 1 – Jericho Arts Centre @ Vancouver, BC
TWO-PERSON EXHIBITION
2025 May – “Fantasia” Lipont Gallery @ Richmond, BC
GROUP EXHIBITION
2025 June – “2025 Vancouver Salon Exhibition” Federation Gallery @ Vancouver, BC
2025 June – “2025 On The Edge Exhibition” Federation Gallery @ Vancouver, BC
2024 August – “Dream Mechanism” Lipont Gallery @ Richmond, BC