ART.COLLECTIVE
ART.COLLECTIVE
Visual Artist – Painter – Sculptor – Performer
(Born in China, 1995)
2017–present | Advanced Diploma in Sculpture and Decoration (Second-Level Degree) with thesis “Tecnica di stampaggio in plastilina“, Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara, Italy |
2014–2017 | Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Arts (Visual Arts), Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara, Italy – Graduated with scholarship |
2014 | CILS Certificate (Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language), Level B1/B2 |
Advanced Diploma in Sculpture and Decoration (Second-Level Degree) Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara, Italy
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Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Arts (Visual Arts)
Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara, Italy – Graduated with scholarship
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CILS Certificate (Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language), Level B1/B2
2022–present |
Vice President of FAC – Fronte Acciaio Cromato Co-directing the collective’s curatorial strategies, performances, publications and installations with a transmedia and cross-disciplinary approach. Coordination of public events, visual communication and international collaborations. |
2022 |
Collettivo Disturbate Participated in visual manifesto series Oltre lo Spazio and engaged in feminist-led protest-based projects in Carrara’s urban landscape. |
2017–present |
Artist at Collective FAC – Fronte Acciaio Cromato Erika Gao has been part of FAC since its early phase, contributing with performance, painting, printmaking, textile-based installations and visual campaigns. Her work is central to the group’s identity and graphic language. |
Vice President of FAC – Fronte Acciaio Cromato
Co-directing the collective’s curatorial strategies, performances, publications and installations with a transmedia and cross-disciplinary approach. Coordination of public events, visual communication and international collaborations.
——
Collettivo Disturbate
Participated in visual manifesto series Oltre lo Spazio and engaged in feminist-led protest-based projects in Carrara’s urban landscape.
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Artist at Collective FAC – Fronte Acciaio Cromato
Erika Gao has been part of FAC since its early phase, contributing with performance, painting, printmaking, textile-based installations and visual campaigns. Her work is central to the group’s identity and graphic language.
My artistic practice is anchored in hybrid visual forms that blend personal memory, symbolic action and socio-political irony. I move freely between painting, sculpture, performance and installation, often using my own body, language, or voice as a critical tool.
My Chinese origins shape my perspective, but I worked in Italy, in the cultural stratigraphy of Carrara, a city carved by stone and rebellion. This contrast feeds my visual vocabulary: softness and stone, silence and satire, rituals and ruptures.
I do not aim to create neutral objects, each work emerges from lived experience, collective tension, and poetic distortion.
Through my work at FAC, I contribute to the group’s multilingual, multimedia identity and its commitment to pushing sculpture beyond form and into dialogue.
Sewing, carving, staging, drawing, they are not separate disciplines for me but one continuous gesture of resistance and imagination.
2025 |
ThreeTwenties- Co-curation and visual direction (Josephine Baker / Donald Trump / Artificial Intelligence) Carrara Studi Aperti Logo design & Festival Cart Carrara |
2024 |
POP PASQUA POPOLARE – Collective performance & ritual walk, Ex Psychiatric Hospital of Volterra, Italy including Studio Dialogue – Live performative talk with Maura Crudeli & FAC, Carrara, Italy Bad Ragartz Dialogue in collaboration with sculpture network ARTE in Negozio, Carrara |
2023 |
FAC Manifesto Series – Visual campaigns, print installations & performative tableaus at Carrara Studi Aperti Project Hagen & Lindemann |
2022 |
Oltre lo Spazio – Poster series & urban action with Collettivo Disturbate, Carrara Registration of FAC as a cultural association |
2021 |
Don Euro – Sculptural intervention for Torano Notte e Giorno, Torano, Italy |
2019 |
Crucifige! Crucifige! – Solo exhibition FAC, Teké Gallery, Carrara, Italy |
2018 |
Various artistic performances on stage Annual participation in Carrara Studi Aperti – FAC headquarters and collective exhibitions |
2017 |
The Calling – Exhibition with Maria Cristina Amato, Carrara, Italy |
ThreeTwenties- Co-curation and visual direction (Josephine Baker / Donald Trump / Artificial Intelligence)
Carrara Studi Aperti Logo design & Festival Cart Carrara
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POP PASQUA POPOLARE – Collective performance & ritual walk, Ex Psychiatric Hospital of Volterra, Italy including Studio Dialogue – Live performative talk with Maura Crudeli & FAC, Carrara, Italy
Bad Ragartz Dialogue in collaboration with sculpture network
ARTE in Negozio, Carrara
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FAC Manifesto Series – Visual campaigns, print installations & performative tableaus at Carrara Studi Aperti
Project Hagen & Lindemann
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Oltre lo Spazio – Poster series & urban action with Collettivo Disturbate, Carrara
Registration of FAC as a cultural association
——
Don Euro – Sculptural intervention for Torano Notte e Giorno, Torano, Italy
——
Crucifige! Crucifige! – Solo exhibition FAC, Teké Gallery, Carrara, Italy
——
Various artistic performances on stage
Annual participation in Carrara Studi Aperti – FAC headquarters and collective exhibitions
——
The Calling – Exhibition with Maria Cristina Amato, Carrara, Italy
2024–2025 |
Invited artist and for Cart Carrara 2025 & partner events in Tuscany |
Invited artist and for Cart Carrara 2025 & partner events in Tuscany