KOAC Artist in Residence

Mao and chris

SEPTEMBER 15 – OCTOBER 31, 2025

Over the months of September and October 2025, Mao and Chris are artists in residency at the Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre.

Mao and Chris met while completing their Masters of Fine Arts Degrees at the University of Calgary in 2017. The artists and life partners began collaborating in their home studio in Calgary in 2020, shortly thereafter creating the collaborative studio Mao and Chris. Combining different cultural backgrounds, Mao being born and raised in China and Chris having grown up on the west coast of Canada, the artists look to create works that reflect upon their individual and shared perspectives. They have attended residencies together in Canada and have exhibited collaborative works within Canada, the US and Asia.

ABOUT:

During their residency at KOAC, Mao and Chris are developing new mosaic sculptures that repurpose flawed ceramics from their functional ceramics studio—pieces that would typically be discarded due to minor imperfections or firing issues. By transforming these fragments into sculptural works, they are aiming to explore themes of repair, transformation, and the overlooked beauty in brokenness.

This project reflects Mao and Chris’s commitment to sustainability and their ongoing interest in reimagining material narratives. Drawing inspiration from the KOAC site—its textures, natural rhythms, and sculptural landscape, Mao and Chris plan to integrate their inspirations from the site into both form and composition. The mosaic process, with its emphasis on assembling disparate parts into a cohesive whole, resonates deeply with their collaborative practice and their lived experiences as artists from different cultural backgrounds.

Through this process, Mao and Chris will explore cross-cultural narratives embedded in the fragments—each carrying traces of their studio, their hands, and their heritage—while responding to the land and its history. The resulting sculptures will be meditations on resilience, memory, and the quiet power of things once deemed flawed or forgotten.

Explore more of Mao and Chris’s work

Instagram – @mao_and_chris

Website: maoandchris.com