Thao Kieu (b. 1996) is an interdisciplinary artist from South Portland, Maine. Kieu’s multimedia work is positioned in conversation with the larger cultural phenomena that blurs the space between art and life. The structure, style, and bold subject matter rouse care and liberation. Her practice provokes discomfort and controversy by focusing on the traumatic personal experiences. It’s cathartic for her to create spaces that “aggressively soft scream” her experiences of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and forcing the politics of the personal, sexual and violent, and viewers become defacto witnesses to her truth. By reflecting the body of her practice as a whole, the common themes of sexual violence and the use of her body as an object critiques gendered power structures that are perpetuated throughout life. 

After earning a BFA from Saint Joseph’s College of Maine in 2018, Thao Kieu continued her research and process of making at the Maine College of Art and Design, completing a Master of Fine Art in Studio Art in May 2022. She will continue to make space to have dialogue around hard conversations that relate back to the experience of the body.