b. 1942, China
David Diao is a New York School abstract painter whose works are characterized by investigating the Modernism’s defining themes and iconography, while questioning its lineage and theoretical underpinnings. Diao’s formalist paintings are inflected with the social, cultural, and political. In the mid-eighties, Diao’s style shifted radically, as he began incorporating silkscreened images, vinyl lettering, hand-drawn marker, and painted words, detailing his personal life and practice. Combining his radical formalism with avant-garde iconography, identity politics, and autobiography, Diao confronts the complexity of histories. Diao’s works are included in the collection of Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, U.S.A., the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, U.S.A., the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, U.S.A., the Fonds National d’art contemporain, Paris, France, the M+ Collection, Hong Kong, and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, among others.