AI WEIWEI

b.1957, Beijing, China

Currently lives and works in Portugal

 

A global citizen, artist, and thinker, Ai Weiwei moves between modes of production and investigation. He attended Beijing Film Academy and later on moving to New York (1983–1993), continued his studies at the Parsons School of Design. He is one of the leading cultural figures of his generation and serves as an example for free expression both in China and internationally. He endeavors not just to spread Chinese culture across the globe, but to appropriate them for the expression of thought-provoking, reflective ideas. A porcelain vase can be elegant, but it can also be a façade for the feudalistic tradition of treasury and court culture; a zodiac sign can be mythical and imbued with symbolism and faith, but it can also be down-to-earth and playful as presented by Ai, using the plastic construction LEGO bricks as a medium.

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From early iconoclastic positions in regards to authority and history, which included Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn and a series of middle-finger salutes to sites of power, Study of Perspective (both 1995), Ai’s production expanded to encompass architecture, public art and performance. Beyond concerns of form or protest, Ai now measures our existence in relation to economic, political, natural and social forces, uniting craftsmanship with conceptual creativity. Universal symbols of humanity and community, such as bicycles, flowers, and trees, as well as the perennial problems of borders and conflicts are given renewed potency though installations, sculptures, films and photographs, while Ai continues to speak out publicly on issues that he believes significant to cotemporary societies.

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Major solo exhibitions include Ordrupgaard Museum, Denmark (2024); MUSAC, Leon, Spain (2024); Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands (2023); Pilane Sculpture Park, Sweden (2023); the Design Museum, London, UK (2023); Albertina Modern, Vienna, Austria (2022); Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK (2022); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea (MMCA), Seoul, Korea (2021); Serralves Foundation, Porto, Portugal (2021); Corodoaria Nacional, Lisbon, Portugal (2021); K20/K21, Düsseldorf, Germany (2019); OCA, São Paulo, Brazil (2018); Corpartes, Santiago, Chile (2018); Mucem, Marseille, France (2018); PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2017); Sakip Sabanci, Museum, Istanbul, Turkey (2017); Public Art Fund, New York, NY, USA (2017); Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2017); Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy (2016); 21er Haus, Vienna, Austria (2016); Helsinki Art Museum, Finland (2016); Royal Academy, London, UK (2015); Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany (2014); Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN, USA (2013); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA (2012); Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2011); Tate Modern, London, UK (2010) and Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2009). Architectural collaborations include the 2012 Serpentine Pavilion and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium, with Herzog and de Meuron. Among numerous awards and honors, he won the lifetime achievement award from the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards in 2008 and was made Honorary Academician at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 2011. His human rights work has been recognized through the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent in 2012 and Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award in 2015.