Ai Weiwei
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ai.
Son of Ai Qing.
Ai Weiwei (艾未未), born in 1957 in Beijing, is one of the leading artists as well as independent curators and architectural designers in China. He is the Artistic Consultant for design, collaborating with the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron, for the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics.[1]
In 1978, Ai enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy and attended school with famous Chinese directors Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. [2] In 1979 he was one of the founders of the early avant garde art group the "Stars." From 1981-93, he lived in the United States, mostly in New York, doing performance art and creating conceptual art by altering readymade objects. In 1993, Ai returned to China because his father took ill. Back in Beijing, he helped establish the experimental artists' East Village and published a series of three books about this new generation of artists: Black Cover Book (1994), White Cover Book (1995), and Gray Cover Book (1997). [3]
Since then he has produced iconoclastic work focusing on China's cultural history, centralized political system, and the contradictions of modernity.[4] He artwork has been exhibited extensively in the United States, Belgium, Italy, Germany, France, Australia, China, Korea and Japan. His work was included in the '48th Venice Biennale 1999', Italy; the 'First Guangzhou Triennial 2002', China; and 'Zones of Contact: 2006 Biennale of Sydney'.[5]
As an independent curator, his exhibits include:
[edit] References
- ^ Merewether, Charles, Editor.~Essays by Jonathan Napack and Chin-Chin Yap. Ai Weiwei, Works: Beijing 1993-2003. Beijing: Timezone 8 Ltd., 2003.
- ^ Archinect articles
- ^ Merewether, Charles, Editor.~Essays by Jonathan Napack and Chin-Chin Yap. Ai Weiwei, Works: Beijing 1993-2003. Beijing: Timezone 8 Ltd., 2003.
- ^ Art Facts Net articles
- ^ Asia Pacific Triennial artists
