Artist Profiles

Ai Wei Wei

(1957 born in Beijing) Ai Weiwei one of the most outstanding and eclectic personalities in China, is an independent artist based in Beijing. He is also a freelance curator, cultural advisor and architect. In 1979 he was one of the founders of the art group "The Stars" and in 1998 Ai Weiwei started the loft-gallery China Art Archive & Warehouse (CAAW) in Beijing, of which he is the artistic director. He collaborates with the Swiss firm Herzog de Meuron as architectural consultant for the Beijing National Stadium project.

“I think China as a society has been closed up for half a century. In the past twenty years it's started to open up. The economic change and political change has really created a very strong interest in what's going on in this very big society, whose population is one-fifth of the whole world. Everything is changing and happening in such a dramatic way, and it's all reflected in Chinese art.”

Other Works By This Artist [ click to view larger images ]