Wendy Yao

Wendy Yao (born Los Angeles, California) is an American musician and curator.[1]

Yao is a graduate of Stanford University, where she had a radio show and started a radio station magazine.[2] Her sister is visual artist Amy Yao, with whom she was in the 1990s all-Asian American teenage riot grrrl trio Emily's Sassy Lime in Southern California.[1][2][3] The Yao sisters along with friend Emily Ryan formed Emily's Sassy Lime in 1993, and the band dissolved in 1997.[4] They all played multiple instruments and switched instruments during performances.[5]

Yao was proprietor of Ooga Booga art boutique and bookstore in Los Angeles, which sold artists' books, zines, records, clothes by independent designers, and other artist-crafted goods and ephemera.[1][2][3][6] Yao operated Ooga Booga in Los Angeles' Chinatown neighborhood for 15 years starting in 2004, and a second outpost Ooga Booga #2 within the large-scale L.A. art space 356 Mission for a few years until it closed in 2019.[7][8][9] Yao curated art exhibits, film screenings, and music performances at these spaces.[3] In 2017, Yao was a recipient of the White Columns/Shoot the Lobster Award for her work creating opportunities for both artists and audiences.[10] After the storefronts closed, Yao expanded Ooga Booga into more flexible forms with pop-ups and a web presence.[3]

Wendy and Amy Yao have also collaborated on curatorial projects, including their Art Swap Meet at Andrea Zittel's High Desert Test Sites.[1][11][12]