Yuxiao Mu

Born in 1998 in Dalian, China, Yuxiao Mu is an interdisciplinary artist and educator currently based in Boston, Massachusetts. Mu’s artistic practice is richly informed by her conceptual interests in memory, emotion, and storytelling, utilizing a diverse array of mediums such as analog and digital photography, video, printmaking, and painting.

Yuxiao Mu completed her MFA in Photography at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), where she is also an adjunct professor in the Studio Foundation department. Her educational journey began with a BFA in Photography from the LuXun Academy of Fine Arts in China, providing critical discourses both as an artist and as a professor.

The Chinese-American artist explores an unconventional artistic collaboration that is of utmost personal power. Her multigenerational collaboration through the Internet with her mom and grandmother, who are in China, has been the subject of some of her most notable projects in her series-based practice.

Yuxiao Mu, Goodbye Summer (from the series Camouflage), 2021. Courtesy the artist.

Yuxiao Mu, Untitled Sunset (from the series letter to my father), 2021. Courtesy the artist.

Yuxiao Mu, Untiled (from the series Phoenix at Sundown), 2022. Courtesy the artist.

Yuxiao Mu, M&M's in my Palm (from the series Phoenix at Sundown), 2022. Courtesy the artist.

Yuxiao Mu, Fish (from the series Camouflage), 2021. Courtesy the artist.

Yuxiao Mu, Bubbles, 2021. Courtesy the artist.

Yuxiao Mu, Phoenix at Sundown, 2023. Multi-color etching with chine-collé on Magnani Pescia paper — 16’ x 22 in. Courtesy the artist.

 

 

For instance, one of her most important works, titled 小凤 (Phoenix at Sundown) (2023), is a cross-generational collaboration addressing her grandmother’s memory loss, blending videos and photographs across continents to create a touching narrative on familial ties and the fragility of memory. Personal writings and a series of snapshot photographs support this intensely genuine artwork.

Her works have been recognized and showcased in various international and national venues, including exhibitions in Rome, Boston, and Minneapolis. Mu’s projects have also been featured in prominent publications like Visual Atelier8, Float Magazine, and Rogue Magazine. Noteworthy among her published works are her self-published books, such as Letter to My Father (2021), which captures the symbolic connection of time zones through photographs of sunsets and sunrises, bridging the physical distance between her and her father.

To conclude, we encounter a similar tendency of intimacy, personal information, the emotive, and notions of memory in her video works and printmaking. Across various disciplines, Yuxiao Mu’s work is marked by an enigmatic aesthetic and aura, accompanied and fueled by certain rawness and directness as her sources of inspiration and of the final artwork are derived directly from real life.

In addition to her artistic achievements, Mu is committed to academic roles, having taught courses such as “TIME” and “Visual Language” at MassArt. She is set to broaden her teaching horizons as an AICAD Fellow at the Kansas City Art Institute starting Fall 2024, where she will contribute to the Photography/Film and Studio Foundation departments. Mu’s contributions to the field of art education and her ongoing exploration of complex themes through interdisciplinary art practices mark her as a significant figure to follow.

For more information, please visit the artist’s website here.

Last Updated on June 4, 2024