Ai Weiwei’s TRACE

Ai is recognized around the world as a creative force and cultural commentator, and for nearly three decades he has redefined the role of both artist and activist. His conscience-driven body of work ventures far beyond the art world and into the realm of modern politics, addressing the movement of refugees, government conflicts, incarceration, a nd perceived injustice. Despite, or perhaps because of, his unorthodox approach to art making and his expanding social and media savvy, he is arguably among the world’s best-known living artists.

Born in Beijing in 1957 to renowned poet and intellectual Ai Qing, Ai Weiwei grew up in the Xinjiang region, where his father was exiled in 1959 by the Communist regime. In 1978, the younger Ai studied at the Beijing Film Academy before moving to the United States in 1981. He returned to China in 1993 and helped establish the Beijing East Village contemporary art scene, named for the New York neighborhood in which he had lived. In 2011, after a period of escalating conflict with Chinese authorities over his artwork, Ai was arrested and detained in secret for nearly three months before his release. His passport was confiscated, and he was unable to leave China until it was returned to him in 2015.

Ai’s recent major solo exhibitions include those held at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2009); Tate Modern, London (2010); the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2012); the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2015); the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy (2016), and those of Trace at Alcatraz and the Hirshhorn. He has received numerous awards and honors, notably Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award (2015) and the Wall Street Journal’s Innovator of the year (2016).