Artist, Designer, Pao Hui Kao studied Industrial Design at Huafan University in Taipei, Taiwan. After gaining four years of experience as an industrial designer, she pursued a Master’s program at the Design Academy Eindhoven, from which she obtained her Master of Arts degree in 2016.
Her work reflects significant influences from innovative materials, traditional craftsmanship, social issues, and ecological concerns. Through the creation of objects, sculptures, and installations, her work emphasizes the transformation of ordinary materials and surroundings into extraordinary aesthetics. Pao Hui Kao’s projects merge the forces of nature with human artifacts. Her studio serves as a platform for ongoing research in experimental design, imbuing man-made sculptural forms and installations with deeper meaning through their interaction with nature and its elements. This process of development enables Pao Hui Kao to weave a narrative where the natural and the artificial converge to shape landscapes for the mind to explore the philosophical quandaries that confront the human condition.
In 2020, Pao Hui Kao created two collections for Spazio Nobile: Paper Pleats and Lacquer Leaf, in which she explores the symbiosis of both organic and mineral ele-ments using tracing paper, crepe paper, rice glue, Urushi lacquer, color pigments, and kintsugi. Pao Hui Kao was also a finalist for the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize in 2022 and had her solo exhibition 25 Seasons, Landscapes of Paper and Lacquer, at the gallery during the Winter 2023-2024 and a duo show, LuniSolar, with Ann Beate Tempelhaug at Design Miami/Basel in 2024.
Her creations have entered private and institutional collections in recent years, including the POC Foundation, Boghossian Foundation, among others. Pao Hui Kao will exhibit her beautiful Original Paper Pleats Lounge Chair, made of tracing paper and rice glue, as part of the Fondazione Dries Van Noten’s inaugural Presentation, The Only True Protest Is Beauty, running from 25 April until 4 October 2026.
Pao Hui Kao has been represented by Spazio Nobile since 2019.
Pao Hui Kao: At the Heart of the Material
Pao Hui Kao: Dialogue Between Maker and Material
Pao Hui Kao: A Journey of Material Development
Pao Hui Kao : Marie Claire Maison Italy : La forza della carta
Spazio Nobile Editions – Pao Hui Kao : 25 Seasons
