Miao Jiaxin

Beginning in Shanghai, where his photography works expressed the universal theme of urban angst, Miao immigrated to New York and expanded his view from urban streets towards a more conceptual public stage. Among his performative works, which span across different media, Miao has blended his naked body into the bleak streets of New York City, traveled inside a suitcase hauled by his mother through urban crowds, made live-feed erotic performances on an interactive pornographic broadcasting website, and dressed as a Chinese businessman for an entire year when working towards his MFA at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Miao’s works often express the ambivalent and sometimes antagonistic tension that always exists between the individual and governing or cultural authorities, and questions assumptions about power in relation to identity politics. He posits the artist’s nature as one who transgresses boundaries, challenges consensus, and stays distant from authority.