CAO FEI

From March 12, 2021 to June 6, 2021, UCCA presents “Cao Fei: Staging the Era,” the artist’s first major solo show in China. As one of China’s most prominent contemporary artists, Cao Fei (b. 1978, Guangzhou) uses multimedia formats—film, video, virtual reality, and installation—to surreally depict the dramatic social changes of a globalizing China and the state of the individual under such conditions. “Staging the Era” assembles the expansive range of works from Cao Fei’s two decade-long career to date, from the experimental theater works in her early years as a student at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts to her latest large-scale interdisciplinary research project on the history and echoes of the Beijing neighborhood she calls home today. This exhibition was curated by Philip Tinari, Guo Xi, Patrick Rhine, and Huang Jiehua, and was organized by Liu Kaiyun, Edward Guan, Shi Yao, and Anna Yang.

About the Artist

Cao Fei (b. 1978, Guangzhou, lives and works in Beijing) blends social commentary, pop culture aesthetics, references to Surrealism, and documentary filmmaking conventions in her works, which consider the rapid and chaotic changes of contemporary Chinese society. Her work has been exhibited in many major international exhibitions, including the Shanghai Biennale, Moscow Biennale, Taipei Biennial, 15th and 17th Biennale of Sydney, Istanbul Biennial, Yokohama Triennale, and 50th, 52nd, and 56th Venice Biennales. She has exhibited her works and projects at museums such as the Serpentine Gallery (London); Tate Modern (London); New Museum (New York); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York); Museum of Modern Art (New York); Palais de Tokyo (Paris); and more. She has held solo exhibitions at Centre Pompidou (Paris) and MoMA PS1 (New York). In 2020, her large-scale exhibition “Blueprints” was shown at the Serpentine Gallery. Cao Fei was nominated for the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award in 2010. She has received both the Best Young Artist Award (2006) and the Best Artist Award (2016) from the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards.