Dissident artist Ai Weiwei is famous for conceptual artworks that challenge authority and explore the links between the contemporary world and traditional Chinese culture. His photographs, sculptures, films, performances, and installations earned him ire from the Chinese government, which imprisoned him for 81 days in 2011 and razed his studio in 2018. Ai left the country in 2015. His most lauded works include Sunflower Seeds (2010)—for which the artist scattered 100 million porcelain “seeds” (hand-painted by Chinese artisans) across the floor of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall—and Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), in which he destroyed the eponymous cultural artifact. Urns are frequent motifs throughout Ai’s practice, which often comments on mass consumption, individuality, censorship, and interconnections among contemporary cultures. Ai studied at the Beijing Film Academy before attending Parsons School of Design, and he has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Copenhagen, Beijing, London, and other cities. His work belongs in the collections of multiple institutions, including Centre Pompidou, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Tate, among others. Ai served as an artistic consultant for the design of the Bird’s Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His work has sold for millions of dollars at auction, yet given the diversity of his practice, many of his pieces sell for four or five figures on the secondary market.

Ai Weiwei is one of the bravest artists of our generation, and he uses politics and social commentary throughout his work. He is no stranger to speaking against repression and social injustice. His series _A Study of Perspective_ is a perfect example of his disobedience against governments, commercialism, and places of aggression. These are themes that go throughout all his work, as he offers a reinterpretation of historical artefacts from his _Coca-Cola_ vase series, which plays on ancient Chinese craftsmanship and modern consumerism, to his _Water Lillies #1_, which recreates Monet’s _Water Lillies_ in Lego to pixelate and digitise the artwork. 

Ai Weiwei’s use of iconic imagery and playful way of creating deep conversations around notions of the relationship between the individual and state power, cultural identity, censorship, and human rights are just some of the reasons his work will appeal to collectors and investors. You can purchase authenticated examples of the works through established galleries and auctions. When you purchase an Ai Weiwei artwork, you are not only purchasing an artwork, but a set of ideas that extend beyond the work.

## About Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei was born in Beijing in 1957, the son of a prominent poet Ai Qing, who was exiled during the Anti-Rightist Movement in China. This context of Ai Weiwei’s work highlights his political surroundings, which inform his work. Rather than be scared of the regime and fall in line, Ai Weiwei has always taken a stance in his work since studying animation at the Beijing Film Academy, his move in the 1980s to New York and experiencing influences of Western conceptualism, Pop Art, and Dada.

Upon returning to China in the 1990s, Ai Weiwei became a key figure in the Chinese avant-garde, co-founding the experimental artist collective, Stars Group, and documenting urban change in Beijing via photography in part. Over these years, Ai Weiwei over time started to address issues of accountability, surveillance, migration, and the individual under power.

His major exhibits at museums such as Tate Modern, Royal Academy of Arts, Hirshhorn Museum, Mori Art Museum, have helped to create a cultural icon around the figure of Ai Weiwei. Similarly, in terms of how Ai expresses his activism, which has led to his being placed under house arrest, censoring by the Chinese state, and international notoriety - has only amplified the impact of his practice.


Ai Weiwei

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81 Questions: Is Art Worth Collecting