CAI GUO-QIANG (CHINA)

Cai Guo-Qiang : awarded at the 48th Venice Biennale Cai Guo-Qiang was born in Quanzhou, in China in 1957 and grew up during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). He immigrated to Japan in 1986 and, in 1995, to New York, where he works and lives. In 1999 he was awarded one of the three International prizes presented to individual artists participating in the 48th Venice Biennale.    Artistic Approach Cai Guo-Qiang, Project for Extraterrestrials No. 16 : The Earth Has Its Black Hole, Too, 1994 Hiroshima Central Park Passage of the text Cai Guo-Qiang takes 'The Rent Collection Courtyard' from cultural revolution model sculpture to winner of the 48th Venice Biennale International Award, by Britta Erickson "Cai Guo-Qiang's work is rich and varied, but he is best known for his site specific gunpowder events, and for his installations employing traditional Chinese medicines. … (His works) juxtapose the controlled activity of painting with the uncontrollable force of fire, highlighting the dichotomy between humankind and cosmic forces, while bringing them into harmonious conjunction in a work of art. Cai subsequently developed a technique for 'drawing' on paper with gunpowder, and now makes gunpowder sketches as an integral part of his proposals for major explosive events. Such sketches, along with photographic records, are often the only tangible remnants of these ephemeral events."    Project for the Biennale Cai Guo-Qiang, Transient Rainbow, June 29, 2002 Video Filmed by: Araki Takahisa Edited by: Cai Guo-Qiang and Araki Takahisa Commissioned by Museum of Modern Art, New York Courtesy of the artist and the MoMa Statement for Impression Oil Drawing: Transient Rainbow, work shown at the 3rd Biennale de Montréal 2002 by Cai Guo-Qiang "This series of paintings are taken from past explosion events, the still frames of the TV monitor replaying the video documentation converging with the still frames of my memory. Painted in impressionistic style, I consider these to be drawings of sorts. The urge to paint them is the same as the basic desire for two-dimensional expression that attracted me to become a painter as a young man. And in a world so full of changes and variables, the stability to work in a controllable space and environment is particularly attractive. The difficulties facing painting and drawing today are also challenges for me in the exploration of the work."    Works Shown at the 3rd Biennale de Montréal Cai Guo-Qiang, Impression Oil Drawing: Transient Rainbow, 2002 Oil on canvas 3 sections of 153 x 197 cm each (Total : 153 x 591 cm) Courtesy of the artist 1. Impression Oil Drawing: Transient Rainbow, 2002 Oil on canvas 3 sections of 153 x 197 cm each (Total : 153 x 591 cm) Courtesy of the artist 2. Transient Rainbow, June 29, 2002 Video Filmed by: Araki Takahisa Edited by: Cai Guo-Qiang and Araki Takahisa Commissioned by Museum of Modern Art, New York Courtesy of the artist and the MoMa    Solo Exhibitions and Projects (selection) 2002 Demeter, Tokachi International Contemporary Art Exhibition, JapAn Transient Rainbow, Museum of Modern Art, New York, United States Cai Guo-Qiang, Shangai Art Museum, China Cai Guo-Qiang, CHADO Pavilion, Hakone Open Air Museum, Japan 2001 An Arbitrary History, Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, France (cat.) Artistic Direction for APEC Cityscape Fireworks, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, Shangai, China UmoCA, Arte all'Arte, Arte Continua, Colla di Val d'Elsa, Italy Performing Chinese Ink Painting, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (British Columbia), Canada Impressionistic Drawings, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver (British Columbia), Canada 2000 Ascending a Staircase, 69th Regiment Armory, New York, United States Project for Project, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, France (cat.)    Group Exhibitions and Projects (selection) 2002 La 3e Biennale de Montréal - 2002, Montréal (Québec), Canada Painting without Painting, Museum für bildende Künste, Leipzig, Germany 2001 Artistic Direction for APEC Cityscape Fireworks, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, Shangai, China Form Follows Function, Castello di Rivoli, Museo d'arte contemporeana, Turin, Italy Mega Wave, Yokohama 2001 International Triennial of Contemporary Art, Yokohama, Japan Bienal de Valencia, Spain Project Refreshing, 49ième Biennale de Venise, Italy Locus/Focus, Sonsbeek 9, Arnhem, Holland Gift, Palazzo Papesse, Sienne, Italy Visual environment for /Asunder, Yin Mei Dance, Danspace, St. Marks's Church, New York, United States 2000 Shangai Spirit, Shangai Biennial, Shangai Museum of Modern Art, China Open End-MoMA 2000, Museum of Modern Art, New York, United States media_city_seoul, Seoul Metropolitain Museum, Korea Echigo-Tasumari Art Triennial, Nigata, Japan The Quite in the Land, Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil Sharing Exoticism, 5ième Biennale de Lyon, France Art/Unlimited/Basel/2000, Art/31/Bâle, Switzerland The Act of Resistance, Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea, Donostia-San Sabastian, Spain Biennial of Sydney 2000, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Over the Edges, SMAK, Gent, Belgium 2000 Biennial Exhibition, Withney Museum of American Art, New York, United States Outbound, Houston Contemporary Arts Museum, United States Wall, National Museum of History, Taiwan Gratitude, Taiwan Museum of art, Taiwan    Publications RASPAIL, Thierry, Cai Guo-Qiang, Independent Publisher Group, 2002 ZAYA , Octavio, Cai Guo-Qiang, Contemporary artist series, Phaidon Press LTD, 2002 DAWEI, Fei, Cai Guo-Qiang, Thames and Hudson LTD, 2000    Cai Guo-Qiang on the Web  Chinese-art.com

ARTISTS VISUAL ARTS   David Blatherwick   Cai Guo-Qiang   Casagrande      & Rintala   Colette   Marcel Dzama   Graham Gillmore   Betty Goodwin   Angela Grauerholz   Daniel Guzman   Mathew Hale   Anton Henning   Cisco Jiménez   Koganezawa      Takehito   Lux Lindner   Corinne Marchetti   Jorge Luis Marrero   François Morelli   Claudia & Julia Müller   Alain Paiement   Bruno Peinado   Ed Pien   Jean-François Prost   John Scott   Kiki Smith   Siphay Southidara   Barthélémy Toguo   Torolab (Raúl &      Marcela Cárdenas)   Pablo Vargas-Lugo   Vedovamazzei   (S. Scala & S. Crispino)   Jean-Luc Verna   Fabien Verschaere LIGHT INSTALLATION   Michel Iorio PERFORMANCE   Cees Krijnen