CAO FEI

Cao was recently voted one of the most influential artists in the world. Born in Guangzhou in 1978 and based in Beijing, she has documented China’s rapid urbanisation and digital revolutions for over two decades. Her acclaimed films, photography and large-scale installations offer thrilling encounters with the disorienting, quick-fire transformations of the new millennium.

My City is Yours 曹斐: 欢迎登陆 is an invitation into a world of neon, street dance and pop music; a city both familiar and warped, real and virtual. Enter the exhibition via a replica 1960s Beijing cinema foyer, and exit through a homage to a popular Sydney yum cha restaurant.

Designed by the artist and Beau Architects of Hong Kong, the exhibition takes the form of a cityscape. It’s a space of play and self-reinvention, where cosplayers and hip-hop dancers take over sidewalks in Fukuoka and New York. It’s a city of screens and pixels, mediated by gaming technologies, VR and the metaverse. It’s a city under construction, where neighbourhoods are razed overnight and workers compete for jobs with robots.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication offering new scholarship on Cao’s work and an array of artwork stills, images of props and paraphernalia, and archival material spanning the artist’s influences.

The exhibition is made possible with the support of the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW. Along with Magritte, also at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Julie Mehretu, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Cao Fei is part of the Sydney International Art Series, bringing the world’s most outstanding exhibitions to Australia, exclusively to Sydney.