We are pleased to introduce Salt Land, a short story written by Michael Gao illustarted with paintings from his homonymous exhibition at Mandy Zhang Art.
Salt Land follows a boy who leaves a travelling carnival to take work in a lighthouse, which he describes as his “citadel of solitude”. As he settles into a life of isolation and routine work, memories of the carnival and a girl he's left behind resurface, confronting him with longing, departure and the fear of attachment. The story is printed in full alongside an essay by curator Joséphine May Bailey, who considers the relationship between the fiction and the paintings that emerged alongside it.
While the paintings do not directly illustrate the story, they inhabit the same world, shaped by its atmosphere of solitude, longing, departure and refuge. Together, the story, essay and paintings offer different ways into the world Michael Gao has built through Salt Land, bringing the literary and visual elements of the project together in a lasting publication.
Salt Land by Michael Gao
Edition of 100
With an essay by Joséphine May Bailey
Published by perediza studios
Courtesy of Mandy Zhang Art
Copyright © 2026 by Michael Gao. All rights reserved.
