Cai Guo-Qiang, via honoluluacademy.org

b. 1957 in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China

Education:
Shanghai Drama Institute, 1981-1985
Institute for Contemporary Art: The National and International Studio Program at P.S. 1, New York

Awards:
– Finalist, 1996 Hugo Boss Prize
– 1999 Golden Lion at the 48th Venice Biennale
– 2001 Cal Arts/Alpert Award
– 2005 Best Monographic Museum Show, Best Installation or Single Work in a Museum from International Association Of Art Critics, New England
– 7th Hiroshima Art Prize

Drawing For Transient Rainbow, Cai Guo-Qiang, 2003 via momahildawa.blogspot.com

Cai Guo-Qiang began working with gunpowder as a medium while living in Japan from 1986-1995, resulting in his signature set of drawings, Projects for Extraterrestrials. His work is often politically charged, and he used gunpowder as a way to express the supression he felt in China’s social environment at the time.

Guggenheim exhibit, Cai Guo-Qiang, 2008 via marnsarts.blogspot.com

Inopportune (Stage One), Cai Guo-Qiang, 2004 via nycdailyphoto.blogspot.com

Cai draws on a wide variety of materials, symbols, narratives, and traditions—elements of feng shui, Chinese medicine and philosophy, images of dragons and tigers, roller coasters, computers, vending machines, and gunpowder. Since September 11th, he has reflected upon his use of explosives both as metaphor and material. “Why is it important,” he asks, “to make these violent explosions beautiful? Because the artist, like an alchemist, has the ability to transform certain energies, using poison against poison, using dirt and getting gold.”

[PBS Art 21]

Light Cycle, Cai Guo-Qiang, 2003 via symposiumc6.org

Artist Homepage

Wikipedia Entry

More info about the artist coming soon.