Victoria Yau (1939-2023) was one of the earliest Asian-American contemporary abstract artists (painting from the late 1950s - late 2010s) whose works were shown at the Smithsonian, Art Institute of Chicago and numerous US museums and galleries as well as individual single artist open space exhibitions in China, Taiwan, and Japan. A sampling of her work and listing of recent exhibitions and essays can be found at https://www.victoriayau-artist.com
Despite a number of cultural and health-related challenges, she achieved some acclaim and is now being re-discovered as one of the earliest contemporary American woman artists of Asian descent. Stanford University’s East Asian Studies Library recently had an exhibition on her. Through Stanford's scholarly work, we learned that Victoria was a prized student of one of China’s most well-known artists, Fu Chuan-fu.
Northwestern University's Art Block Museum recently added some of her paintings to their permanent collection. Pen+Brush, the oldest gallery for women artists (non-profit, over 130 years old) in New York, had an exhibition of some of her paintings in November.
The Evanston (IL) Art Center is planning an exhibition of her works in April 2025 (and will dedicate a room to her).
The Museum of Chinese in America in NYC will display some of her works in 2026 - 2027 and will add them to their permanent collection.
Victoria's paintings, which she referred to as her daughters, are on display in Menlo Park (CA), San Francisco CA), New York (NY), Chicago (IL), Greenwich (CT), Scottsdale (AZ), Washington DC, and Taipei (Taiwan).