Times Square Arts Presents Three New Artworks by Maia Chao Across Times Square This August
Times Square Arts announced a series of public artworks by Maia Chao taking place this August, marking the culmination of her three years as Times Square Arts’ Public Artist-in-Residence.
Maia Chao, Studies for American Idle
Three interconnected yet distinct projects—including a restaging of the iconic live performance American Idle, an accompanying Midnight Moment presentation inspired by the performance, and an in situ photography installation—emerge from Chao’s sustained investigation into the often unseen labor and infrastructures that shape public life, drawn from three years of research into and engagement with the operational infrastructure of Times Square.
Throughout the duration of her residency, Chao was embedded in the functional structures of Times Square, shadowing sanitation workers, public safety officers, and the daily systems that sustain one of the world’s busiest public spaces. Across performance, moving image, and photography, Chao reveals the hidden choreography of the district and examines how public behavior is observed, documented, regulated, and repeated. Allowing the project to unfold through observation, conversation, and participation, Chao unraveled connections between maintenance labor, crowd behavior, surveillance, and the performance of everyday life.
Maia Chao is an artist making anthropological work across performance, video, sculpture, and public practice. She has been commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art, Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Times Square Arts, The Shed, and MoMA Education. Additional projects have been presented at the RISD Museum, Bronx Museum, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Boston Center for the Arts, Smack Mellon, and Oregon Contemporary. She has completed fellowships and residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center, Pioneer Works, and Queer|Art, among others. Named a Pew Fellow in 2022, she attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2023. For the 2026 Whitney Biennial, Chao presented BEING MOVED, a new performance commission. She is currently a 2026 United States Artists Fellow. She is full-time faculty in Interdisciplinary Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore and resides in Philadelphia.
