SKY DAI is a disabled, queer, emerging artist from Asheville and now living in Raleigh, NC. Sky’s oil paintings are inspired by psychic visions, dreams, ceremonies, and memories. After surviving Hurricane Helene’s flooding, and a bad accident that left them wheelchair bound and house bound for most of the past year, Sky dove head first into painting, again. Sky’s figurative oil paintings with distorted perspectives reference the brain’s ability to collage fragments of memory and heal after trauma. Inspired by the DIY culture of Black Mountain College, and their time there as a student and faculty, Sky mixes fashion design, painting, ceramics, and dance performance. Sky also makes one of a kind, hand-painted clothing and sells it in boutiques around the U.S.
Sky has a BFA in fine arts and creative writing from Columbus College of Art and Design. Sky has received fellowships to be an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center and Ragdale. In 2022, Sky Dai received the Emerging Young Artists Award of Excellence from The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and had their work purchased for the permanent collection on Capitol Hill.
2026 North Carolina Emerging Artist in Residence
