Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei Cube Light 2008
Photo: Keizo Kioku

Ai Weiwei

ABOUT

Born in Beijing in 1957. In 1978, he helped establish the avant-garde group Xingxing (The Stars). Between 1981 and 1993, he lived and worked in New York. Since 1993, Ai has been based in Beijing, working as an artist, curator, architect, designer, critic and social activist. His major group exhibitions include the first and second Guangzhou Triennale (2002, 2005), Biennale of Sydney (2006) and Documenta 12 (2007). Ai collaborated with Herzog & de Meuron on the Beijing Olympic Stadium (the “Bird’s Nest”) and also participated as part of a group in the 11th Venice Biennale of Architecture (2008). Ai’s major solo exhibitions include “According to What?” at the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, 2009) and “So Sorry” at Haus der Kunst (Munich, 2009-2010). A large-scale, commissioned work by the artist is currently on display in the Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Ai Weiwei
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Born 1957 in Beijing
Lives and works in Beijing, China and Berlin, Germany

– Selected Solo Exhibitions –

2018　 Fan-Tam, Mucem, Marseille, France
2018　 Inoculation, Corpartes, Santiago, Chile
2017　 Law of the Journey, National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
2017　 #AiWeiwei, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois
2017　 Maybe, Maybe Not, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
2017　 Trace, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
2017　 Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, Public Art Fund, NY,USA
2016　 Ai Weiwei: translocation – transformation, 21er Haus, Vienna, Austria
2016　 Libero, Palazzo Strozzi, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy
2016　 Ai Weiwei 2016: Roots and Branches, Lisson Gallery, NY, USA
2016　 Ai Weiwei 2016: Roots and Branches, Mary Boone Gallery, NY,USA
2016　 Ai Weiwei: Fondation, Lisson Gallery, London, England
2015　 Ai Weiwei, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
2014　 On the table. Ai Weiwei, La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Barcelona, Spain
2014　 @Large: Ai Weiwei On Alcatraz, Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, USA
2014　 Ai Weiwei in the Chapel, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK
2014　 According to What?, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, USA
2013　 According to What?, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, USA; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; Miami Art Museum, Miami, USA
2013　 Disposition, collateral event of the 55th Venice Biennale, Zuecca Project Space, Giudecca and Chiesa Sant’Antonin, Venice, Italy
2013　 Resistance and Tradition, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla, Spain
2013　 Circle Of Animals / Zodiac Heads,Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA;Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; Miami Art Museum, Miami, Florida, USA; Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA; The Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas, Texas, USA;Arken Museum of Modern Art, Skovvej, Denmark
2012　 Rebar Lucerne, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
2012　 Sunflower Seeds, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, USA
2012　 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012, Designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, London, UK
2012　 According to What?, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA
2012　 Perspectives: Ai Weiwei, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA
2012　 Ai Weiwei, Museum de Pont, Tilburg
2012　 Interlacing, Jeu de Paume, Paris,France; Kistefos-Museet, Jevnaker, Norway
2011　 Teehaus, 2009, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin
2011　 Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads, Taipei Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan,Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Pulitzer Fountain in Grand Army Plaza Central Park, New York and The Courtyard at Somerset House, London
2011　 Ai Weiwei, Foto Museum, Winterthur, Switzerland
2011　 Ai Weiwei, Lisson Gallery, London
2011　 Ai Weiwei, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria
2011　 Ai Weiwei, Dropping the Urn (Ceramic Works, 5000 BC AD 2010), Victoria & Albert Museum, London
2011　 Ai Weiwei, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk
2011　 Ai Weiwei in New York, Fotografien 1983-1993 – Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
2011　 Ai Weiwei Absent, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei
2010　 Ai Weiwei, Faurschou Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2010　 Cube Light, MISA SHIN GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan
2010　 A Few Works from Ai Weiwei, Alexander Ochs Galleries, Berlin, Germany
2010　 The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London, UK
2010　 Hurt Feelings, Galerie Christine Koenig Galerie, Vienna, Austria
2010　 Ai Weiwei, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
2010　 Dropping the Urn, ceramics 5000 BCE 2010 CE, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, USA
2010　 Ai Weiwei, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2010　 Barely something, Stiftung DKM, Duisburg, Germany
2010　 Dropping the Urn, ceramics 5000 BCE 2010 CE, Arcadia University Gallery, Glenside, USA

– Selected Group Exhibitions –

2018　 21st Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
2017　 Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
2017　 Yokohama Triennale 2017, Yokohama, Japan
2016　 Megacities Asia, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
2016　 Landscapes After Ruskin: Redefining the Sublime, Hall Art Foundation, Reading, Vermont
2015　 28 Chinese, Asian Art Museum, San Franciso; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, USA
2015　 [7P] – [7] Places [7] Precarious Fields, 6th Fotofestival, Zephyr der Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim, Germany
2015　 The Order of Things, The Walther Collection, Neu Ulm, Germany
2015　 The Enchanted Garden of Ai Weiwei, Palazzo Tè, Mantova, Italy
2014　 1 + 1 = 1: When Collections Collide, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada
2014　 Grip friheten! Take Liberty!, The Museum of Contemporary Art Oslo, Norway
2014　 KUB Collection Showcase, New Acquisitions from Ai Weiwei to Zoberning, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria
2014　 Performance and Imagination: Chinese Photography 1911 – 2014, Stavanger Art Museum, Stavanger, Norway
2014　 Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950, Mudam Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Museum Joanneum, Graz, Austria
2014　 When now is minimal, Museion, Bolzano, Italy
2013　 Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China, The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York, USA
2013　 28 Chinese, Rubell Family Collection / Contemporary Arts Collection, Miami, USA
2013　 EMSCHERKUNST.2013, Duisburg, Dinslaken, Oberhausen, Essen, Bottrop, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
2013　中 (Middle), Not Vital Foundation, Ardez, Switzerland
2013　 Back to Earth. Von Picasso bis Ai Weiwei, Die Wiederentdeckung der Keramik in der Kunst, Herbert-Gerisch Stiftung, Neumünster, Germany
2013　 Unlimited, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
2013　 German Pavillion 2013, 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2013　 Circles I Kreise, Bamberg, Germany
2013　 A Journal of the Plague Year. Fear, ghosts, rebels. SARS, Leslie and the Hong Kong story, Para Site, Hong Kong
2013　 Moving: Norman Foster On Art, Carré d’Art, Musée d’art contemporain, Nîmes, France
2013　 Duchamp and / or / in China, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China
2013　 Yes, naturally. How art saves the world, Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Den Haag, Netherlands
2013　 China China, The PinchukArtCentre, Kiev, Ukraine
2013　 Freedom!, Kunstpalais, Erlangen, Germany
2013　 Against the Grain: Wood in Contemporary Art, Craft and Design, MAD Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA
2013　 Of Bridges & Borders, Valparaiso, Chile
2012　 Privat, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
2012　 Beyond the Wall, Catello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy
2012　 Art and Press. Kunst. Wahrheit. Wirklichkeit, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany, ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie,Karlsruhe, Germany
2012　 Public: Collective Identity: Occupied Space, Contact Photography Festival 2012, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
2011　 Mit Feuer und Flamme – Keramik in der Gegenwartskunst, Museum Villa Rot, Burgriden-Rot, Germany
2011　 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
2011　 The Art of Deceleration. Motion and Rest in Art from Caspar David Friedrich to Ai Weiwei, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany
2011　 Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
2011　 Camulodunum, Firstsite, Colchester, UK
2011　 Shanshui Poetry without Sound Landscape in Chinese Contemporary Art, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland
2011　 The last freedom From the pioneers of Land-Art oft he 1960s to nature in cyberspace, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany
2011　 I promise to love you, Caldic Collection, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2010　 29th Sao Paulo Biennial, Sao Paolo Biennial, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2010　 Rema(i)nders, Galleria Continua, Beijing, China
2010　 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy
2010　 Taking a Stance, 8 Critical Attitudes in Chinese and Dutch Architecture and Design, OCAT Art & Design Gallery, Shenzhen, China
2010　 Regionale 10, Liezen, Austria
2010　 The Problem of Asia, Chalk Horse, Sydney, Australia
2010　 Marcel Duchamp and the Forestay Waterfall, Salle Davel, Cully, Switzerland
2010 　Lost and Found, Neugerriemschneider, Berlin, Germany
2010　 Taking a Stance, 8 Critical Attitudes in Chinese and Dutch Architecture and Design, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2010　 Acconci Studio + Ai Weiwei: A Collaborative Project, Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong
2010　 Taking a Stance, 8 Critical Attitudes in Chinese and Dutch Architecture and Design, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2010　 Until Now: Collecting the New (1960-2010), Target Gallery, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, USA
2010　 Taking a Stance, 8 Critical Attitudes in Chinese and Dutch Architecture and Design, Dutch Culture Center, Shanghai, China
2010　 Radical Conceptual, Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2010　 Contemplating the Void, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA