Read Exile On Main Street: An Interview Of Ai Weiwei From Our F/W 2018 Issue →

 
A man standing in front of t-shirts hanging, and he is holding a camera.
 

One week before this interview, Ai Weiwei’s studio in Beijing was bulldozed by Chinese authorities without any warning. Known for his brazen acts of dissent, Ai has not only challenged authoritarianism in China – the revolutionary polymath has also been extremely vocal about the worldwide refugee crisis. In a constant limbo state of exile, Ai has been living and working in Germany since getting his passport back in 2015. This fall, he will be taking over Los Angeles with three major exhibitions that he sees as one singular expression. At UTA Artist Space—which is housed in a 4,000-square-foot former diamond-tooling facility conceived and designed by Ai—the artist will be showing a series of sculptural works made from marble, including his iconic CCTV camera on a plinth, a Damoclean symbol of our post-capitalist era of state-sponsored surveillance. Central to the exhibition will be Humanity, a performative work and social media campaign that encourages visitors to the gallery to read a passage from Ai’s recent book on the refugee crisis—the footage will be compiled in a 30-minute video. On view until March 2019 at Marciano Art Foundation, Life Cycle will also explore the crisis of global displaced persons by drawing on the artist’s personal experiences and Chinese mythology. The show will include his famous work, Sunflower Seeds, which is comprised of over 49 tons of porcelain sunflower seeds carved and crafted by 1,600 artisans in Jingdezhen, in China’s Jiangxi province. Finally, at Jeffrey Deitch’s new Hollywood Gallery, Ai will present his installation of over 6,000 salvaged wooden stools from the Ming and Qing dynasties, which were gathered from villages across Northern China, thus serving as quotidian ciphers of cultural erasure and human existence. Read more.

 

“Any government, not only the Chinese government, is afraid of true individuality. True individuality is at odds with collective thinking.”

 

The Sexy Beast Gala Benefit For Planned Parenthood LA At The Marciano Art Foundation In Los Angeles

Sexy Beast for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles is the shared vision of a group of influencers in the arts, united by a mission to harness the goodwill and powerful connections of the creative community to effect positive change, touch lives, and create a meaningful social impact. They believe we should all have access to safe, caring, and affordable healthcare services. During these challenging times for Planned Parenthood, it's more important than ever that the organization has our support, so it can remain focused on the vital care it provides. Since its founding in 2014, the Sexy Beast art auction and gala has raised nearly one million dollars for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles across two milestone events. This year, they raised almost one million dollars in one night alone, bringing Sexy Beast back for an unmissable evening of art, food, music and culture. photographs by Oliver Kupper

Ai Weiwei's CAO/Humanity @ UTA Artist Space In Los Angeles

Cao / Humanity is a new exhibition by the acclaimed Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, which is in tandem with two other Los Angeles exhibitions. This marks an exciting milestone for both Ai and the city of Los Angeles, where he is exhibiting for the first time. Having designed the new UTA Artist Space location in Beverly Hills, Ai’s Cao / Humanity offers a one-of-a-kind experience for visitors—an expansive celebration of his artistic practice in a space he himself designed, the only architectural project he’s undertaken in the United States.

Central to the exhibition is a new collective performance project by Ai Weiwei: Humanity. This global campaign is a reaction to the tens of millions displaced by war, famine and climate crises, and gives a personal and group voice in support of the idea that humanity is one. 

Cao presents a wide range of his work, from the iconic middle finger motif wallpapered through the space and the glass sculpture Up Yours(2018), to the massive Iron Tree Trunk (2015), a collection of individual pieces welded together into a deceptively life-like form, weighs nearly two tons. CAO/Humanity is on view through December 1, 2018 at UTA Artist Space 403 Foothill Road, Beverly Hills. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Opening of Ai Weiwei's 'Zodiac' @ Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in Los Angeles

Jeffrey Deitch has just opened his new Los Angeles gallery with a museum-scale exhibition entitled, Zodiac, by Ai Weiwei. This inaugural exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery Los Angeles, is one of three major exhibitions by the artist concurrently on view in Los Angeles.

The center of the space is filled by one of the artist’s most remarkable works, Stools (2013), comprised of 5,929 wooden stools from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties and the Republican period, gathered from villages across northern China. Very few of these stools remain in Chinese households today, but they were once a ubiquitous staple of domestic life. Each stool reveals traces of use and evokes the experience of generations of lives. Ai Weiwei admires the stools for their simple design and solid structure, a design language that remained unchanged for thousands of years.

Complementing the stools is a new series of Zodiac works composed from thousands of plastic LEGO bricks. The set of twelve works incorporates imagery from two well-known series by the artist. The twelve LEGO Zodiac animal heads deriving from his sculpture series Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads (2010) are overlaid onto twelve landscapes and monuments from Ai’s Study of Perspective (1995–2003) series of photographs. He appreciates how LEGO is accessible to everyone, especially young people. His use of LEGO components is a response to the pixelated structure of digital images.

Both the Stools and the Zodiac installations are assembled from accumulated elements, a creative method that Ai has employed in many of his best-known works. His interest in accumulation and collecting relates to his desire to understand how an individual relates to society, to memory, and to objects that evoke a particular time. His use of antique stools and modern LEGO bricks are examples of how his art redefines these elements, subverting their history and nature.

The sculpture Grapes (2017) reassembles the stools into a completely different shape but uses the original structural logic so that it remains true to its original form. It provides a graceful and whimsical counterpoint to the accumulation of the 5,929 stools. Zodiac is on view through January 5, 2019 at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery 925 N Orange Drive, Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Kupper

Ai Weiwei's Life Cycle @ Marciano Art Foundation In Los Angeles

Life Cycle is Ai Weiwei’s first major institutional exhibition in Los Angeles and features the new and unseen work Life Cycle (2018) – a sculptural response to the global refugee crisis. The exhibition also presents iconic installations Sunflower Seeds (2010) and Spouts (2015) within the Foundation’s Theater Gallery. On view for the first time in the Black Box, Life Cycle (2018) references the artist’s 2017 monumental sculpture Law of the Journey, Ai’s response to the global refugee crisis, which used inflatable, black PVC rubber to depict the makeshift boats used to reach Europe. In this new iteration, Life Cycle depicts an inflatable boat through the technique used in traditional Chinese kite-making, exchanging the PVC rubber for bamboo. Life Cycle in on view through March 3 2019 at the Marciano Art Foundation 4357 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Andy Warhol/Ai Weiwei Dual Exhibition @ The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh

Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei, developed by The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, and the National Gallery of Victoria, with the participation of Ai Weiwei, explores the significant influence of these two artists on modern and contemporary life, focusing on the parallels, intersections, and points of difference between their practices—Warhol representing 20th-century modernity and the “American century,” and Ai representing life in the 21st century and what has been called the “Chinese century” to come. The exhibition will be on view until August 28, 2016 at The Andy Warhol Museum, 117 Sandusky Street  photographs by Ali Lotz

Ai Weiwei and Anish Kapoor Walk Out of London to Support the 60 Million Refugees In the World Today

Ai Weiwei and Anish Kapoor joined forces today when they walked out of London to support the some 60 million refugees in the world today. The walk started at 10 am from the Royal Academy of Arts where Weiwei's retrospective has just opened to Stratford. The action will be carried out in cities across the world. photograph by Anish Kapoor