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Jenie Gao

@jeniegao.bsky.social

1.3K followers 670 following 580 posts

(they/she) Self-employed artist-small business owner. Consultant on equity and ethics. Anti-gentrification / art washing. Pro-fair pay + labour rights. Salty. 🍉🕊️ jenie.org linktr.ee/jeniegao instagram.com/jeniegao cara.app/jeniegao SHOP: jenie.studio

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Jan 16

Hey, lovelies, lil intro: I'm a Taiwanese-Chinese American artist specializing in #printmaking, #publicart, and community storytelling.

I run an anti-gentrification arts business and consult for orgs on equity and ethics. I have bones to pick re: fair labor practices + institutional accountability.

Queer Asian American artist with short hair and an undercut standing with their art installation. The artwork is a large oval table whose surface is inlaid with green and red wood carvings that resemble jade. There are woodblock prints in the background on a vermilion red wall.

The installation is from Jenie Gao's series entitled, The Negotiation Table. The series draws attention to the history of Europeans' obsession with finding a shorter route to Asia, which catalyzed their colonization of Turtle Island / North America. The Negotiation Table forges connections between local and global colonial events, to strengthen our collective long-term memories in the pursuit of justice.

#portfolioday #installationart

Photo by Khim Hipol

Queer Asian American artist with short hair and an undercut standing to the right of their art installation. The artwork centers on a diptych of woodblock prints in shades of blue, depicting the artist's migration route overlaid with an iris flower. There are two tables on each side of the diptych, made from the hand-carved woodblocks that made the prints. Mirrored tiles on the floor make the light reflect and shimmer on the artwork.

The installation is from Jenie Gao's series entitled, The Negotiation Table. The series draws attention to the history of Europeans' obsession with finding a shorter route to Asia, which catalyzed their colonization of Turtle Island / North America. The Negotiation Table forges connections between local and global colonial events, to strengthen our collective long-term memories in the pursuit of justice.

Photo by Khim Hipol

#portfolioday #installationart

Queer Asian American artist with short hair and an undercut wearing an inky lab coat and pulling a large woodblock print off a printing press. The print is shaped like half an ellipse and is in the colors green and red, designed to resemble hand carved jade, and features a homing pigeon in the center of the artwork.

Queer Asian American artist in a yellow shirt in front of a large-scale mural of a steampunk metal ox.

The mural is black and white and painted in a cross hatched linework style. This mural is installed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and honors the Year of the Metal Ox which brings reliability and resilience.

Photo by Adam White Ossers

#portfolioday #murals

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 4d

Current reading: Against the Loveless World, by Palestinian American author and activist Susan Abulhawa. 💙📚 #palestinianwriters #decolonizeyourbookshelf

Front cover of the novel, Against the Loveless World, by Susan Abulhawa.

It's a hardcover book with jewel toned blues, pinks, violets, and peaches in an abstract geometric design overlaid on a starry night sky. The text is gold and white.

Reposted by Jenie Gao

JazzReads📚 @jazzreads.bsky.social · 12d

So exhausting..

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Reposted by Jenie Gao

Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 24d

This is what I want from my reps or I don't want them at all, tbh

Wrecked @wrecked9n76e.bsky.social · 24d

Karina Villa protecting her constituents by literally running ICE off the streets in West Chicago and yelling to residents to stay inside their homes.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 24d

As a millennial, I recall a simpler time on the Internet when pedophiles had usernames like PrincessPeach1982 and Californiagurl69xo.

Today pedophiles have usernames like POTUS.

😞

#potus

Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 24d

One of my famous installation guides. I do my best to be kind to the curators and installation teams that handle my work.

For my upcoming solo show, The Integrity of a Story, at Alberta Printmakers, opening Sept 26 in Calgary, AB.

#contemporaryprintmaking #printmakers #printsky #installationart

Photo of a word processing document that contains step-by-step instructions for installing a work of art, plus a sketch of the artwork. The art installation in the sketch consists of a custom-built TV tray table, two chairs, and a framed wall piece. There are dramatic shadows cast onto the floor in the drawing.

Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · 25d

Wall color for my upcoming solo show. #contemporaryprintmaking

Reposted by Jenie Gao

Let the Right Hon In @danhon.com · Sep 4

Remember in films that lifelike avatars would be all "I'm sorry, my limited programming does not allow me to answer that question" and now we have LLM that will happily generate incorrect answers!

MIT Technology Review @technologyreview.com · Sep 4

AI avatars are more humanlike than ever before.

The uncanny valley is narrowing. Are we ready for what comes next?

Synthesia’s AI clones are more expressive than ever. Soon they’ll be able to talk back.

The uncanny valley is narrowing. Are we ready for what comes next?

www.technologyreview.com

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Aug 8

My other kitty, Marigold, and yet another graphic novel about cats.

Cats of the Louvre, by Taiyo Matsumoto.

#graphicnovel #comics #cats 💙📚

Photo of a long-haired black cat lying on a table next to a hardcover book entitled Cats of the Louvre. The cover features an illustration of a white cat on a Queen Anne style chair against a red gallery wall with two framed paintings, and several small illustrated cats around the title.

Reposted by Jenie Gao

austin_walker @austinwalker.bsky.social · Aug 6

I know a lot of you have already heard or read about BDS Movement's call against Microsoft, and felt weird and bad about it all, but decided to move forward as normal because of some degree of ambiguity.

"What service is Microsoft providing?"

Here it is, clear as day. A direct line to death.

According to three Unit 8200 sources, the cloud-based storage platform has facilitated the preparation of deadly airstrikes and has shaped military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

Thanks to the control it exerts over Palestinian telecommunications infrastructure, Israel has long intercepted phone calls in the occupied territories. But the indiscriminate new system allows intelligence officers to play back the content of cellular calls made by Palestinians, capturing the conversations of a much larger pool of ordinary civilians.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Aug 5

Re: time traveling, Kindred was so stressful, in some ways more so than Parable of the Sower 😩

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Aug 5

The first one is a real doozy to read in 2025. 😅😩 Ready to dig into the second one!

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Aug 4

How long ago? Maybe worth trying again?

Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Aug 4

Agreed!

Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Aug 4

It’s terrific and poignant. My favorite of her works thus far.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Aug 4

Decided to scare myself by reading Octavia Butler's prescient novel, Parable of the Sower.

Written in 1993. Set in 2024-2027. The book follows a disabled Black youth who devises survival strategies amidst high unemployment, addiction, militarized states, privatized cities, and religious zealots.🪐📚💙

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Jul 28

Thank you!

Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Jul 28

Lil #watercolor sketch of Cypress Mountain viewpoint of Gambier and Bowen Islands.

This hike is located in West Vancouver, BC, on the lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

#enpleinair #mstland #pacificnorthwest #vancouverbc

Viewpoint overlooking blue mountains, islands, and blue ocean waters, and artist Jenie Gao's legs and hand holding a long horizontal sketchbook containing a watercolor painting of the scenery.

Cypress Mountain viewpoint of Gambier and Bowen Islands.

This hike is located in West Vancouver, on the lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Jul 28

A stranger took a candid photo of me making a #watercolor #painting from a viewpoint at Cypress Mountain.

💜🖼️🐡 #sketchbook #enpleinair #mountains

Photo of the artist, Jenie Gao, sitting on a rocky ledge overlooking a mountain and ocean view. Jenie has black hair and olive skin, is holding a sketchbook, and is wearing a green tank top, bucket hat, and shorts.

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Reposted by Jenie Gao

David Palumbo-Liu @palumboliu.bsky.social · Jul 28

I dream of a time when we elect leaders who are not genociders. #FreePalestine.

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Reposted by Jenie Gao

MiMi Aye @meemalee.bsky.social · Jul 28

Na’amod @naamoduk.bsky.social (British Jews against occupation) protesting Trump’s visit to the UK near Downing Street today ✊🏽🇵🇸❤️

A group of protestors standing in front of King Charles Street Arch holding Palestine flags and wearing keffiyeh. Some of the protestors are holding up a big yellow banner which says ‘Starmer, will you oppose ethnic cleansing? UK Jews say: Stand up to Trump!’

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Jul 28

My cat, Mintaka, plus literature.

Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu.

💙📚 #catlovers #blackcats #booksky #graphicnovels #comics 🐈‍⬛

Photo of my hand—with an orange long sleeve—booping my cat, Mintaka, on the nose. Mintaka is a fluffy longhaired black cat with gold eyes.

On the table adjacent to Mintaka is the book, Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu. The cover is black, white, and yellow and consists of a line art portrait of Junji Ito at the bottom, his wife at the top, and their two cats, a white cat with a black cap on the left and a fluffy tabby on the right.

Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Jul 28

Yay I'm glad!

Reposted by Jenie Gao

Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · May 28

One pleasant surprise when I joined Bluesky earlier this year is how robust and active the #printmaking community is here.

Follow and share your work with over 100+ folks on the #Printsky feed! 🌟

It searches for a variety of print-related terms and filters out AI content.

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Reposted by Jenie Gao

Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · May 29

Formosan Sika Deer keep their spots long after they grow into adulthood.

They are indigenous to Taiwan, and I've included them in my newest #woodcut and #printmaking projects as a part of familial storytelling.

#printpromptmonday #growth #taiwaneseamericanartist 💜🖼️

Closeup of Jenie Gao's latest woodcut in progress and a carving tool. The artwork features a Formosan Sika Deer and Clouded Leopard leaping in a cyclical chase.

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Jenie Gao @jeniegao.bsky.social · Jul 15

I was fortunate to have my work in Go West, a group exhibition showcasing Asian American artists in Boulder, CO this year.

Thank you to Dairy Arts Center, curator Stella Witcher, and jurors Rajiv Menon + Roseline Nevling for including me in this showcase.

#contemporaryart #printmaking #woodcut

Photo of a white cube contemporary art gallery called Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, CO. Jenie Gao’s artworks are on the far wall: two woodblock print diptychs in blue (left artwork) and green/red (right artwork), and also on a plinth in the center of the room, an artist’s book designed to resemble a Chinese takeout menu.

There are a few other artworks in this shot, including a green chain link fence installation, a 2D photograph, and a sculpture of hands holding pingpong paddles.

Photo by Wes Magyar.

Photo of a white cube contemporary art gallery called Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, CO. This is a close-up of Jenie Gao’s woodblock diptychs.

On left: My Migration Route | Iris Roots Clean the Water, two long pale blue woodblock prints on canvas of a map of the Great Lakes overlaid with an iris flower.

On right: Cycle | Breaking and Making: Pigeon and Fènghuáng, two woodblock prints on canvas hung like scrolls, of a pigeon (left) and fènghuáng / Chinese phoenix (right), in an elliptical chase designed to look like large green/red jade pendants.

Photo by Wes Magyar.

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