[4][5] His artist name is derived from the Greek designation for "earth goddess," and early in his career he used animal imagery to underscore his interest in bringing nature to urban landscapes.
After graduating from high school in June 2007, Gaia moved to Baltimore and studied for four years at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where he broadened his iconography.
He began incorporating portraits of influential, and sometimes controversial urban developers: people such as Nelson Rockefeller, Robert Moses, Henry Flagler, James Rouse, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe.
"[5] In March 2011 Gaia had two solo exhibitions in Chicago co-organized by Maxwell-Colette Gallery and Pawnworks, which included a large-scale installation in the Art Loop at Adams and State.
[11] In the summer, Gaia created an edition of a raven titled Forevermore and donated it to the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in Baltimore, which had lost its funding.
Maya Hayuk created the third mural, and other artists who participated were Swoon, Chris Stain, MOMO, Freddy Sam, Jaz, Jetsonoarma, Overunder, Vhils, Nanook, Mata Ruda, Specter, Interesni Kaski, Ever, Doodles, John Ahearn and Sten & Lex.
[20] In September Gaia was invited to create a large installation at the Baltimore Museum of Art Contemporary Wing which reopened on November 17 after having been closed for several years for a major renovation.
[21] South African street artist Freddy Sam hosted Gaia, Know Hope and Jaz in January to create murals in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Andrew Hosne of Thinkspace was enlisted by event director Jasper Wong to curate an exhibit for the participants'paintings at the Honolulu Museum of Art School, titled Pow!
[25] After returning from Hawaii, Gaia went to work on curating the second Open Walls Baltimore festival in the Station North Arts District where he created his own mural on the side of a Korean rice cake factory on N Charles Street.
[26] Once Open Wall Baltimore 2 was underway, Gaia left for Perth, Australia to participate in a street art mural event called Public organized by the not for profit Form.
However, a local artist Sintex buffed (painted over) Gaia's black and white mural with a set of images to honor varied civil rights icons, including Chin.
[29][30] He was commissioned to create a mural installation at the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, GA focusing on the hashtag #iftheygunnedmedown in response to how blacks are perceived in the media following the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson.
[40] Gaia collaborated on a mammoth Guache five-story triptych in the central hall of the Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of publication of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's prize winning novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.
The mural covers the exterior wall of the Saint Gobain glass factory and depicts and reflects upon the history of labor in Italy (and the world) and the frightening effects of automation.
The 10' x 12' canvas titled "The Hardest Needle to Thread" that Gaia delivered now hangs in Kevin Plank's $60 million brainchild and depicts a piece of Baltimore history with the image of Francis Scott Key and the hands of two women (one white and the other black) sewing the flag which flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.
[46] Gaia has been an identified as a rising star in the art world, with solo exhibitions in New York City; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; San Francisco; Miami; Baltimore; and Seoul, Korea.
In 2008, The New York Times announced that "among the names you’ll see again and again these days is Gaia...he’s an artist-of-the-moment, and prints of his that were for sale at a recent exhibition at Ad Hoc Art in Bushwick sold out.
"[1] The Baltimore Sun declared him a "critically acclaimed emerging artist with gallery shows in Chicago, New York and Washington and street art from Madrid to Seoul.