Yao Mou In

Early life and education Yao Mou In was born in Macau, China, in 2000

Yao was educated in Macau at a Roman Catholic girls' school until the age of 15. During this time she encountered Vincent Van Gogh's painting Café Terrace at Night (1888) which she has since cited as an early artistic inspiration. In 2019, she enrolled as a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) student at New York University (NYU) before transferring to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), graduating in 2023 with a BFA in Glass and Painting. In 2025, she matriculated at the University of Oxford where she is currently enrolled at the Ruskin School of Art, reading for a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree. Yao's work more generally responds to the culture of finding characters drawn in the style of anime or manga attractive, a feeling referred to as moe in Japanese.

Exhibitions

Macau New Woman Contemporary Art Exhibition (Macau: Mong-Ha Villas, 2019) Undergraduate Student Art Organization Show (New York: The Commons and Rosenberg Gallery, 2019) Art Macao: Macao International Art Biennale (Macau: Macao Museum, 2021) Identity as Context, Memory as Content (Providence: David Winton Bell Gallery, 2022) The Space In-between (Providence: RISD Memorial Hall, 2023) Bliss Information (Providence: Gelman Gallery, 2023) What I Felt For You Was Love (Vancouver: 603 Powell St, 2023) Two Kilometers Away from the Chongqing Belt Express (Chongqing: Luo Zhongli Art Museum, 2023) Thin Sheets of Needs (Shanghai: Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, 2024) Unweave a Rainbow (Shanghai: MadeIn Gallery, 2024) Shuttlebus (Chongqing: Northwards Xu, 2024) Here and Now (Lisbon: Community of Portuguese Language Countries, 2024) Growth in Motion (Shanghai: ShanghART Gallery, 2024) Tides/Submerged Visions (Shanghai: Suhe Haus, 2025) Glorious Ashes (Chongqing: 59 Hubin East Rd, 2025) Arabesque (Chicago: Hard Boiled Gallery, 2025) Forget Your Body (Oxford: Dolphin Gallery, 2025) The 22nd Century (Guangzhou: 5+1 Gallery, 2025)

Awards

Programa de Concessão de Subsídios para Realização de Estudos Artísticos e Culturais (Government of Macau Special Administrative Region, 2021). Florence Leif Scholarship (Rhode Island School of Design, 2021).

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