Ai Weiwei, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, Hansel and Gretel (Installation View) at Park Avenue Armory. Photo by James Ewing

Exploration of surveillance and its corresponding limits has long remained a prominent thread in Ai Weiwei’s aggressively political multimedia practice, particularly following his detainment and imprisonment by Chinese authorities in 2011 due to his vocal dissent of the country’s governmental policies on human rights. Hansel & Gretel, Weiwei’s Park Armory tour-de-force in collaboration with architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, furthers his past surveillance-themed projects such as 2012’s WeiweiCam, for which the artist had installed fifteen cameras around his Beijing residence to stream a 24-hour live footage of his home. Coinciding with the one year anniversary of his detention by the Chinese government, the comparison the artist built between actual imprisonment and systematic violation of privacy echoes with his current occupation of Park Armory’s Guild Hall, transforming the column-free exhibition space into a pitch black zone of uncertainty and peril. (more…)

Ai Weiwei, Roots and Branches at Lisson (Installation View), via Art Observed

Ai Weiwei has returned to New York City for the first time since the return of his passport from the Chinese government, opening a quartet of exhibitions across its urban expanses that offer a strikingly deep and varied series of perspectives into the artist’s practice over the past few years.  Spread out across both locations of the Mary Boone Gallery, in addition to a show at Lisson, and one at Jeffrey Deitch Projects, the artist’s selection of works presents a nuanced look at his ongoing investment in the defense and articulation of universal human rights, moving from China, to Syria, and beyond.

Ai Weiwei, Roots and Branches at Mary Boone (Installation View), via Art Observed

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Ai Weiwei returns to New York this fall in a big way, opening a pair of exhibitions at Mary Boone, as well as a show at Deitch Projects, and another at Lisson Gallery, returning to the city he lived in for much of the 1980’s.  “I wish I had known him in New York in the 1980s when he was here for a whole decade, and it turns out that many of my friends knew him,” Jeffrey Deitch says. (more…)

Ai Weiwei, Iron Tree Trunk (2015), via Max Hetzler

Bringing a body of less frequently seen works from the past several years to Paris for his first solo exhibition in the city, Ai Weiwei continues his global tour de force after regaining his passport last year, opening a show at Max Hetzler this month.  Capturing the artist’s continued engagement with both the material and socio-political histories of China, the show features a carefully selected, yet broadly applicable series of pieces that offer a fitting counterpoint to the artist’s major museum exhibition currently on view in Athens.

Ai Weiwei (Installation View), via Max Hetzler

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Ai Weiwei is wrapping Florence’s Palazzo Strossi in rubber life boats, continuing his projects commenting on the plight of Syrian refugees.  The work is part of an exhibition by the artist at the space, which will include a body of new works alongside older pieces. (more…)

Ai Weiwei, Standing Figure (2016), via Art Observed

Turning his sense for political inequality and global human rights issues towards the Mediterranean’s current refugee crisis, Ai Weiwei has brought a body of both new works and recent pieces from the past ten years to Athens’s Museum of Cycladic Art, exploring a fruitful intersection of historical and current political contexts in conversation with the artist’s own personal history.  The exhibition, which marks both Ai’s first exhibition with an archeological museum context as well as his first in the nation of Greece, is a well-selected show, which takes direct aim at the Syrian refugee crisis while addressing the history of Greece in subtly powerful ways. (more…)

Ai Weiwei has been banned from the Yinchuan Biennale due to his “political sensibility,” Artforum reports.  “Censorships in communist regions have been present since the existence of the power,” Ai said in an Instagram post.  “Yet it still comes as a surprise to me for an ‘international art biennale,’ with over a hundred international artists and a foreign curator participating, to remove a single artist for the reason of defending human rights and freedom of speech. This shows what we face is a world, which is divided and segregated by ideology, and art is used merely as a decoration for political agendas in certain societies.” (more…)

Ai Weiwei is featured on Nowness this week, as he prepares to open a show of new work in Greece, focused around the ongoing refugee crisis. “When you see people arrive, it’s hard to describe that feeling,” he says.  “It’s like you cut your skin and see the blood come out, and you see that the wound will never heal, but there’s no intention to stop it.  The whole situation is so desperate because you don’t see human connections in those events.  It’s completely cut off” (more…)

Ai Weiwei has spoken out on the current refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, calling out the UN Decision to return refugees to Turkey instead of providing them homes.  “It is not legal or moral, it is shameful and it is not a solution. It will cause problems later,” he says. (more…)

Ai Weiwei will return to the U.S. this summer for the first time since regaining his passport, the Art Newspaper reports. His trip is planned to to coincide with the Andy Warhol-Ai Weiwei exhibition at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. (more…)

Continuing his work around the Syrian refugee crisis, Ai Weiwei has installed 14,000 lifejackets around the columns of Berlin’s Konzerthaus.  The project coincides with the annual Cinema for Peace gala, which was held last evening in the venue.   (more…)

Continuing his advocacy on Lesbos, Ai Weiwei is creating a work of art from over 14,000 life jackets, in an attempt to bring attention to the crimes committed by people smugglers in the Aegean.  “This work aims to mobilize the global community regarding the crime carried out daily in the Aegean by ruthless people smugglers,” a statement reads. (more…)

Continuing his show of solidarity with Syrivan refugees on the Greek isle of Lesbos, Ai Weiwei has posed in a photograph recreating the scene of a drowned Syrian child.  “The image is haunting and represents the whole immigration crisis and the hopelessness of the people who have tried to escape their pasts for a better future,” says India Art Fair co-owner Sandy Angus. (more…)

Ai Weiwei has pulled his work form exhibitions in Denmark in protest over the country’s controversial new law allowing authorities to seize valuables from refugees.  “I am very shocked about yesterday’s news that the Danish government has decided to seize refugees’ private property,” he wrote in an open letter to ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, where he is currently showing work.  “As a result of this regrettable decision, I must withdraw from your exhibition ‘A New Dynasty.Created In China’ to express my protest of the Danish governments’ decision. Please accept my regrets and thank you for your long-term support. I apologize for the inconvenience caused,” the artist wrote.  (more…)

Ai Weiwei has created a series of new works for Paris department store Le Bon Marché, showing a body of work inspired by traditional Chinese “Shan Hai Jing” children’s stories. “This casualness of urban culture is very appealing: It’s not like being in a museum, in a white box — it’s part of a metropolitan landscape — and the people, or audience, are not artgoers,” the artist says. “People experience the art as they go about their day and something unconsciously happens.” (more…)

As of January 1st, the LEGO Company has reversed its policy on selling bulk orders of its product, considered by many to be a direct result of backlash and worldwide protest over its refusal to provide material to Ai Weiwei for a project in Melbourne.  “If you want to place an order for a large quantity of bricks, we won’t ask what you’re planning to build,” the company website now reads.  “We’ll simply ask you make it clear the work isn’t supported or endorsed by us if it’s for public display.” (more…)

Artist Ai Weiwei recently visited refugees living on the Greek island of Lesbos this month, sharing photos and video documenting their precarious existence, and pleading for more international aid to help them in their attempts to enter Europe.   (more…)

Ai Weiwei, Free Speech Puzzle (2014), via Art Observed

It’s been a whirlwind year for Ai Weiwei, as the artist’s staunch opposition and fierce criticism to government censorship of his work and life brought both new challenges (the alleged bugging of his studio and the arrest of his lawyer and friend Pu Zhiqiang) and new victories, including relaxed limits on his ability to show in China, and ultimately, the return of his passport, allowing the artist to leave the country for the first time since his arrest in 2011.  This last event underscores the artist’s triumphant exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, where he has mounted an expanded version of his traveling solo exhibition, including a series of new works for the show. (more…)

Ai Weiwei has begun his three-year tenure as a visiting professor at Berlin’s University of the Arts this month, and introduced himself to the student body with some unique musings on the nature and definition of art.  “It’s a bit like with sex,” Ai told the gathered audience this week. “One can have a lot of experience, and nevertheless find it extremely difficult to define.” (more…)

Ai Weiwei is accusing the Lego Company of censorship after the company refused to fill an order he made for the toy building blocks, which he was intending to use in a new project.  “We refrain — on a global level — from actively engaging in or endorsing the use of Lego bricks in projects or contexts of a political agenda,” the company responded. (more…)

Ai Weiwei has announced that his memoirs will be released in 2017, published by Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House.  “The history of totalitarianism is one characterized by the state’s continuous attempts to destroy individual memories,” the artist says. (more…)

Ai Weiwei has reportedly found what he thinks are “listening devices” in the walls of his studio.  The artist posted photos and video of the devices, which were found during a renovation of his studio.  “There will always be surprises,” he noted. (more…)

Ai Weiwei gave his first public talk in Berlin last night since 2011, appearing at the Berlin Philharmonic to discuss his work, and his takes on the state of politics in China.  “When you live in a centralized regime, people feel powerless,” he said. “They feel they don’t have the possibility to change things; that is the intention of the regime.” (more…)

Ai Weiwei’s iconic bicycle installation Forever will be installed in front of the Gherkin in London next week, as part of the city’s “Sculpture in the City” event, running from Sept. 4th-13th.  “The Forever bicycles were a brand from when I was growing up. In our village there were no real roads and we always had to ride bikes to carry things,” Ai says.  “I thought they would be a good public sculpture because people relate to bikes. They’re designated for the body and operated with your body. There are a few things today that are like that.”  (more…)