Miguel Ángel Payano Jr.
B.1980 Based in Beijing, China, and New York
Introduction
Miguel Angel Payano Jr. combines sculpture, painting, and collage to create disturbing imagery that recalls surrealism and the illusionistic portraiture of the 16th-century Milanese painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo as well as mid-millennium Singerie paintings. From his upbringing in New York to decades spent living and working in China, Payano’s work is reflective of the way that the artist shifts and expands his identity as he goes, bending and combining his different worlds. His transcultural practice combines humour and the grotesque. The mouth is a characteristic element in Payano’s works as he paints them onto the surface of peaches, creating his own image of a “single-celled human,” as he terms it.
Education
2020 MFA, Hunter College, New York, USA
2008 MFA, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
2003 Studio Art and Chinese Language, Williams College, Massachusetts, USA
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Woo-Woo, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2023
Limbguistics, Unit, London, UK
Out From, Charles Moffett, New York, USA
2022
Sojourn Summits, Galleria Poggiali, Milano, Italy
2021
Elusive Nature, Make Room, LA, USA
Miguel Ángel Payano Jr., Charles Moffett, New York, USA
2015
Miguel Payano, Bloo Lagoon, Bali, Indonesia
2014
Republic Domain, Wilde Gallery, Williamstown, USA
2013
Miguel Payano: Koicocks, LDX Hong Kong Gallery, Hong Kong
2007
Timeline, Williams College, Williamstown, USA
Spawns of Ruin: 798, Red T Space, Beijing, China
2006
Enveloped: installation, TV interview nationally broadcasted in PRC
2004
Milan Fashion Week, Academia Barilla: 9 day live painting 6’x 20’, Milan, Italy
2003
Constructing Frames: installation, Wilde Gallery, Williams College
Group Exhibitions
2023
Twentysomethings, curated by Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, USA
2022
Resilience, Eastville Museum, Sag Harbor, New York, USA
This Basic Asymmetry, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA
1-54 Art Fair, Galleria Poggiali, London, UK
Popup, Harper’s / Here and There Co., Seoul, South Korea
NFS Art Foundation, Basel, Switzerland
Ghosts of Empire Part 2, Larry Ossei-Mensah, Ben Brown, London, UK
The Inferno Desire Machine, Simon Lee, London, UK
Ghosts of Empire Part 1, Larry Ossei-Mensah, Ben Brown, Hong Kong
2021
Ad-Diriyah Biennale, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
NADA, Charles Moffett, Miami, USA
Universes, Curator S. Bogojev, Droste Gallery, Paris, France
Drool, Kravets Wehby, New York, USA
Shining in the Low Tide, UNCLEBROTHER, Hancock, New York, USA
Desire Encapsulated, Make Room, LA, USA
Shape of an Image, Curator S. Bogojev, WOAW gallery, Hong Kong
Sweet Peach Trios, Gallery Platform LA, Make Room, LA, USA
36 Paintings, Harper’s Books, East Hamptons, USA
Privilege of Being Together, Curator D. Baez, Anna Zorina, New York, USA
See and Be Seen, Praise Shadows, Boston, USA
2020
Black Voices: Friend of My Mind, Ross-Sutton, New York, USA
Hauser & Wirth — Hunter College Thesis Show, H&W website
Gravity Spell, Hunter College Thesis Show, Hunter College, New York, USA
Assemblage – The Olympia Project, Virtual show, Artsy
Art021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, Qi Mu Space, Shanghai, China
2019
37 x 33, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China
2018
Rundgang, University of the Arts (UdK), Berlin, Germany
2015
Timeline, Williams College, Williamstown, USA
Art at ISPO, Central Business District, Beijing, USA
2013
On Charge, LDX Hong Kong Gallery, Hong Kong
2012
Art Beijing, LDX Contemporary Art Fair, Beijing, China
Archipelagic Ceremony, LDX Hong Kong Gallery, Hong Kong
2011
Art Beijing, LDX Contemporary Art Fair, Beijing, China
2010
Metamorphosis, LDX Contemporary Art Center, Beijing
Sovereign Asian Art Exhibition and Auction, Shanghai, Hong Kong
SDA Exhibition, Corepower, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong
Art Beijing, Emerging Artists, LDX recommended, Beijing, China
CIGE Art Fair, LDX Contemporary Art Center, Beijing, China
2009
Art Beijing, LDX Contemporary Art Center, Beijing, China
Viking Mountain Funeral, Celestial Suitcase, New York, USA
CIGE Art Fair, LDX Contemporary Art Center, Beijing, China
Attitude, LDX Contemporary Art Center, Beijing, China
2008
Limited Distance, LDX Contemporary Art Center, Beijing, China
MFA Painting Graduate Student Show, CAFA, Beijing, China
Affordable Art Fair, Live painting, 798, Beijing, China
Make It New, 1949 Gallery, Beijing, China
Selected Press
2023
April ‘An Uptown Cat Became a Chinese Artist. Then He Returned Home.’, The New York Times
2022
May ‘Galleria Poggiali opens the first Italian solo exhibition of Miguel Angel Payano Jr.’, Artdaily
2021
December ‘The Best Booths at NADA Miami, from Powerful Portraits to Spirit Carriers’, ARTnews
November ‘Elusive Nature: Miguel Angel Payano Jr. @ Make Room, Los Angeles’, Juxtapoz
Collections
Jebsen Collection, Hong Kong, China
Barilla Collection, Parma, Italy