A round, beige plaster or clay relief by Chaney Diao with abstract curved and spiral patterns hangs on a textured, weathered wall with uneven paint and patches of grey and taupe. The relief has raised edges and intricate lines forming a central swirling design.

Chaney Diao

Chaney Diao is an artist whose practice is situated at the intersection of fetishism, labour and the thriving of emergent aesthetics. Diao’s work sits at the edge of subversion, where submission and agency, pleasure and pain, become fluid. Drawing on knowledge gleaned from BDSM, rave and club subcultures and DJ mixing, the artist explores how desire is situated within each of these contexts. Elements like extremity and burnout are constantly referenced as conceptual conditions to reflect broader ideas of maintenance and production in tune with the accelerating tempo of our times.

Selected exhibitions and performances include Knotted Timelines, Seager Gallery, London (2025), FAN の BLOG 迷妹の部屋, Asymmetry Art Foundation, London (2024), How to Destroy Angels (curated by Tai Shani & Anne Duffau), Horse Hospital, London (2024), Acal Festival 3 (curated by Studio/Chapple and SON OF CRAFT), Staffordshire St Gallery, London (2023), if splash has your whistle, IKLECTIK, London, (2023) and Kaugummi im Motherboard, gr_und Gallery, Berlin, (2024).

In 2025 the artist was selected as an awardee of the third edition of the LOEWE FOUNDATION / Studio Voltaire Award.

  1. Website
  2. Instagram
    1. Chaney Diao, CLAMP I, 2024. Installation view at UAL Millbank Project Space London. Image courtesy of the artist.
    2. Chaney Diao, Dysfunctioned Dec II, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist
    3. Chaney Diao, In and Out of Sync, 2025. Installation view at Seager Gallery London. Image courtesy of the artist
    4. Chaney Diao, Mute, 2025. Installation view at Seager Gallery London. Image courtesy of the artist
    5. Chaney Diao, The Leather Sofa You Find Sexy, 2025. Installation view at Seager Gallery London. Image courtesy of the artist

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