Paco Cao was born in Tudela Veguín, Asturias, in 1965. He relocated to New York City in 1994, where he continues to live and work.
Cao does not commit to a single artistic medium. Employing a wide range of disciplines and materials, his work forges a close relationship between the artwork, the audience, and its context of creation, while simultaneously blurring the line between what is often labelled as high and low culture. His projects are generally long-term undertakings that transcend geographical and cultural boundaries. Two recurring themes in his work are the central role of the viewer and the exploration of narratives in which fiction and historical reality merge.
His work has been exhibited and/or produced in collaboration with major institutions including the MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Creative Time, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, all in New York; the Prado Museum, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, MUSAC, CGAC, the Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre, Brazil; the Museo Carrillo Gil in Mexico City; MART in Trento and Rovereto; MAN in Nuoro; M HKA in Antwerp; BOZAR in Brussels; and numerous institutions in Rome, such as the Galleria Nazionale, the Archaeological Park of Ostia Antica, the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, Palazzo Barberini, Museo Canonica, the Capitoline Museums, the Galleria Borghese, the American Academy, and the Spanish Academy.
Between 2012 and 2014, he directed the Psycho-Linguistic-Retro-Futurist Cabinet, commissioned by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto (Italy). The project featured activities such as psychological cocktail services, presented at venues including MoMA (New York), MUSAC (León), and spaces in Mexico and Italy. In 2012, he exhibited Eternal Rest at (Art) Amalgamated in New York and at MART in Italy. In 2011, he participated in Facets of Figuration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the 8th Mercosul Biennial in Brazil with Venenum Saltationis.
Among his long-term projects are The Poison of the Dance (2009–ongoing), a 72-minute film and historical installation commissioned by CGAC; The Museum of the Victim (since 2006); a series of look-alike contests (2001–2004), developed in collaboration with institutions such as the Prado Museum and El Museo del Barrio; and Rent-a-Body (1993–1998), launched with Creative Time in New York.
He has held solo exhibitions and participated in group shows at institutions such as the New Museum (New York), Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), BOZAR (Brussels), and Museo Carrillo Gil (Mexico). He has also worked as an art history lecturer at the University of the Americas (Puebla) and has been a guest speaker at Princeton University, Parsons School of Design, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Gothenburg, the Autonomous and Complutense Universities of Madrid, and the Polytechnic University of Barcelona.
Cao is the author of several books, including Museum Beauty Contest (2023) and The Museum of the Victim (2009), and director of the films The Poison of the Dance (2009) and Lady Justice (2015). His work is held in numerous collections, such as the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (New York), MART (Italy), MUSAC (Spain), and CGAC (Galicia). He has received awards and grants from institutions including the Smithsonian, Art Matters, and the Fundación Marcelino Botín. He holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Oviedo and completed further studies in new technologies at NYU.
