For Gao, apparel art serves as a means to investigate the various ways people relate to their environment as well as contemporary complex social and technological issues.

Ying Gao is a fashion designer and professor of design at UQAM. She is also the recipient of the 2009 Phyllis-Lambert Design Montréal Grant, awarded annually by Ville de Montréal. Her creations have been exhibited in North American, European and Asian museums and featured in books and magazines devoted to art and design (D+A,Wallpaper, Interview Magazine, Vision, etc.).