Cooper Hewitt says...
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. He is an outspoken advocate for political freedom, and left China in 2015 to escape persecution by the Chinese government. Born in Beijing to a family of dissidents, Ai’s childhood was largely spent in exile. After studying at the Beijing Film Academy, Ai moved to New York City in 1981, where he briefly attended the Parsons School of Design. After nearly a decade in the United States studying and making avant-garde art across several media, Ai returned to China in 1993, where he was active in promoting the country’s underground art communities. In 2003 he founded a design firm, FAKE, which explored both architectural and Conceptual art practices. At the end of that decade, as a result of his outspoken social activism, Ai became the target of increasing harassment by the Chinese government, ultimately necessitating his emigration to Germany in 2015. He relocated to Cambridge in 2019, but maintains a studio in Berlin, where the Mask with Middle Finger was printed. Works by Ai, including photographs, sculptures, paintings, performances, and installations, are in the collections of, among others, MoMA, Tate Modern, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Numerous solo exhibitions dedicated to his work have been held in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
