Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1957 Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China; active New York) is among the most important Chinese artists working in global contemporary art. He has gained international recognition for his explosive artworks, which involve igniting gunpowder on paper, canvas or glass to create intricate patterns and dynamic compositions. His explosion events, often choreographed with meticulous precision, serve as spectacles that explore themes of cultural exchange, global conflict, and the human condition.
His use of gunpowder comments on the material’s charged identification with China— where it was invented— and underscore its contradictory associations with ancient medicine, ritual fireworks, and modern violence. He was trained in stage design at the Shanghai Theatre Academy from 1981 until 1985. He then relocated to Japan where he spent nearly nine years prior to settling in New York City, where he now lives and works. He first began experimenting with gunpowder in the 1980s and staged the first of his public explosion shows, which would become integral to his practice. Cai received numerous awards including the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1999, the Hiroshima Art Price in 2007, and the 2009 Fukoka Prize. His two most acclaimed U.S. exhibitions began in New York: “Cai Guo-Qiang on the Roof: Transparent Monument” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006 and his retrospective “I Want to Believe” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2008. He is perhaps famous for his role as the director of special effects for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which showcased his unique blend of artistic vision and technical expertise on a global stage. In 2015, Cai’s explosion event “Sky Ladder” off Huiyu Island in his hometown of Quanzhou, became the centerpiece of an eponymous Netflix documentary. Read more 
