Tao Siqi's paintings are rooted in her fascination with the body and flesh as a medium of sensibility and sexuality. She delves into desire of all forms through her intense colors, delicate brushstrokes and characteristic close-up perspective. By creating a tension between beauty and destruction, tenderness and violence, temptation and taboo, her surreal scenes inspire a provocative viewing experience and conjure emotional unease, flickering between pleasure and pain.
Tao Siqi was born in Wuhan, Hubei province, China in 1994, and currently lives and works in Shanghai. She graduated from Hubei Institute of Fine Art with a BA in painting in 2016. Her solo exhibitions include "Trembling" at Fortnight Institute (New York, USA, 2022), "Deep Water" at Clima (Milan, Italy, 2022), "Tender Thorns" at Capsule Shanghai (Shanghai, China, 2021) and "Transient" at chi K11 Art Space (Wuhan, China, 2015). Her group exhibitions include "Games People Play" (Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, USA, 2024), "Deep! Down! Inside!" (Hales Gallery, New York, USA, 2023) , "F*ck Art: The Body & Its Absence" (Museum of Sex, New York, USA, 2022), "Notes on Ecstatic Unity" (OTP Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2022), "Mouthed Echoes" (Lyles & King, New York, USA, 2022), "Indoor Weather", curated by Lu Xiangyi and Wang Shiying (Light Palette Through Time and Space - 2022 Caochangdi Young Artists Group Exhibition, Beijing, China, 2022), "Nine Lives" (Fortnight Institute, New York, USA, 2021), "IMPORT-EXPORT" (Import Export Project, Locarno, Switzerland, 2019), "Right Behind Your Eyes", curated by Sarah Faux (Capsule Shanghai, Shanghai, China, 2019), "The Apple Incident" (Dream Co., Beijing, China, 2018), "On Drawing: Visibility of Power" curated by Lu Mingjun (J: Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2017) and "Chūn rì dì xìan" (RS_PROJECTS, Wuhan, China, 2016) among others.
