Paolo Arao is a visual artist working with textiles, painting, and site-responsive installations. He received his B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Arao’s work has been published in New American Paintings, Maake Magazine, ArtMaze, Dovetail, and Esopus.
His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, The Everson Museum, The Nerman Museum, and the Shaker Museum. Recent solo exhibitions include The Columbus Museum (Georgia), Morgan Lehman Gallery, David B. Smith Gallery, and Western Exhibitions. He has participated in residencies at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Art Omi, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, The Museum of Arts and Design (NYC), Millay Arts, MASS MoCA, Vermont Studio Center, NARS Foundation, Wassaic Project, and the Fire Island Artist Residency. Arao is a 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Painting from The New York Foundation for the Arts.
While at MacDowell, Arao made two sewn paintings and a large handwoven textile for the group exhibition "Hand Over Hand: Textiles Today" at Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, FL. He also continued his Weaving Journal, a year-long durational weaving project of daily hand-woven tapestries and began to develop the work for his upcoming solo exhibitions at Morgan Lehman Gallery in NYC (October 2023) and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE.
