Time Tunnel

Featured in Art Basel, L.A. Art Show, and ART CHICAGO, Cao’s works have been collected by countless museums and enthusiastically embraced by collectors. Known for boldness in style, Cao has taken another unconventional move to launch a solo exhibition at VillageOne, a coworking space located in New York City’s Soho district.

Cao’s works have fascinated viewers, capturing famous American icons’ deepest emotions and inner connections. Cao’s signature style employs tiny pixelated images to form complete compositions, usually combining two or more artworks. Four of his artworks using this artform are now featured at VillageOne — “MatisseDance vs MunchScream”, “Brando vs Warhol”, “Blue is the Warmest Color, After Rothko”, and “Ferrari vs Enzo Ferrari”.

The key features of some of these artworks, notably “MatisseDance vs MunchScream” have special hidden messages. Matisse’s Dance and Munch’s Scream are famously recognized, but the juxtaposition of the artworks in Cao’s combination makes this integration original. The featured image in this particular artwork is Dance, a depiction of dancing figures symbolizing acts of harmony and peace. On the other hand, if one looks closely, the images that comprise Dance are tiny pixels of Munch’s Scream, which depict anxiety and agony.

In Brando vs. Warhol, Cao uses Andy Warhol’s portrait of Marlon Brando from the movie “The Wild One”, an iconic image in the 1950s. In this one, the small, pixelated images are of Andy Warhol himself – his Self-Portrait with Skull, 1978. According to Cao, he chose this specific portrait because Warhol with the skull symbolizes mortality, while Brando, a sex symbol, represents morality.