Recent Projects
Cai Guo-Qiang: A Material Odyssey
September 17, 2024–June 15, 2025
On September 17, Cai Guo-Qiang’s solo exhibition, A Material Odyssey, organized by Getty and the University of Southern California (USC) at the USC Pacific Asia Museum (PAM), opened to the public. The exhibition is rooted in the Getty Conservation Institute and the Getty Research Institute’s research, which began in 2016, on the materials and creative processes in Cai’s art. It traces Cai’s 40-year-long dialogue with gunpowder, including his latest painting explorations with AI. The exhibition features approximately 48 artworks and groups of works, along with a wealth of scientific research, filling almost all the galleries at PAM.
WE ARE: Explosion Event for PST ART
September 15, 2024
At 5:53 PM on September 15, under the last rays of daylight, around 4,500 spectators and nearly a hundred media representatives awaited on the field of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the daytime fireworks WE ARE: Explosion Event for PST ART, created by Cai Guo-Qiang in collaboration with his custom-developed AI model, cAI™.
In just over 30 minutes, five acts of fireworks spanned the 360-degree audience seats, the Olympic cauldron, and the airspace above the stadium. Utilizing approximately 50,000 daytime fireworks, 1,300 drones, nearly 4,000 bamboo poles, and close to 10,000 airbursts, WE ARE created a grand spectacle for AI’s dimensionality reduction to “reveal heavenly secrets,” and attempted to convey the response to the question “What is the fate of humanity with AI?” in a language comprehensible to humans. WE ARE was commissioned and presented by the Getty, in collaboration with the University of Southern California.
This marks Cai’s return to Los Angeles since his solo exhibition and explosion event at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2012. As the opening ceremony of this year’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide, WE ARE is also the first large-scale daytime fireworks and drone fireworks performance in U.S. history.
25 Comets: Explosion Event for MASS MoCA’s 25th Anniversary
May 24, 2024
On May 24th, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) held its 25th anniversary gala, celebrating its distinguished history as an incubator for contemporary art and honoring all the artists, collaborators, and diverse communities who have contributed to the museum.
Approximately 500 guests from around the world—all fatefully connected to MASS MoCA—gathered for the event. MASS MoCA board chair Mariko Silver, artists Nick Cave and Ann Hamilton, current director Kristy Edmunds, state representative John Barrett III, and founding director Joseph Thompson delivered heartfelt speeches. Cai Guo-Qiang, revisiting the site of his 2004 milestone solo exhibition, presented 25 Comets: Explosion Event for MASS MoCA’s 25th Anniversary as a surprise finale to the evening, bringing the sound of tolling bells and sparking inspirations for an unknown future …
Making History at TED2024: Cai Guo-Qiang “Speaks” English
April 16, 2024
On April 15, 2024, the 5-day TED2024 conference commenced in Vancouver, Canada. Marking the 40th anniversary of the organization’s founding, this year’s conference theme, “The Brave and the Brilliant,” centered on “celebrating creativity, ingenuity, courage, wisdom and generosity.”
For his talk, Cai utilized a custom-built AI model developed by metaphysic.ai to convert the live English interpretation of his Chinese speech in real time, using his own voice. This marked Cai’s first speech in English and also became the first instance in TED history of simultaneous interpretation using AI technology. The talk was received with a standing ovation.
Mirage: Explosion Event for the Cornerstone Ceremony of the Quanzhou Museum of Contemporary Art (QMoCA)
December 8, 2023
Over approximately 20 minutes, between the sea and the sky space that will house the future Cai Guo-Qiang-initiated, Frank Gehry-designed Quanzhou Museum of Contemporary Art (QMoCA), an artistic drone firework performance, Mirage: Explosion Event for the Cornerstone Ceremony of the Quanzhou Museum of Contemporary Art (QMoCA), unfolded magically.
Mirage marks Cai’s second explosive event in his hometown, the first being Sky Ladder in 2015. On this occasion, the performance celebrated the Pritzker Prize laureate Frank Gehry’s first architecture project in mainland China and expressed Cai’s gratitude for the nurturing he received from his homeland and culture. Mirage also inaugurated the cornerstone ceremony on December 9th. The events were principally sponsored by Mercedes-Benz.
Ramble in the Cosmos—From Primeval Fireball Onward
The National Art Center, Tokyo
June 29 to August 21, 2023
Cai Guo-Qiang’s solo exhibition, co-organized by the National Art Center, Tokyo and SAINT LAURENT, to open in Tokyo.
“Primeval Fireball marked a transformative departure for my vision and thinking, and its lasting effects accompany me to this present moment.” Cai Guo-Qiang
When the Sky Blooms with Sakura
June 26, 2023
On June 26th at 12:00 PM, Cai Guo-Qiang realized the daytime fireworks When the Sky Blooms with Sakura at Yotsukura Beach in Iwaki City, Japan, an area which had been devastated by the 2011 Japan earthquake and the resulting tsunami.
As part of a commitment to creative excellence beyond fashion—and driven by an admiration for Cai Guo-Qiang’s art and forward-thinking vision—Anthony Vaccarello commissioned the project for SAINT LAURENT. The project was organized by the Iwaki Executive Committee of When the Sky Blooms with Sakura.
cAI™: An Artificial Intelligence Project
Originating from Cai Guo-Qiang’s artificial intelligence research that began in 2017, cAI™ (pronounced “AI Cai”) is a multi-modal AI model custom built by Cai and the studio, based on Cai’s long-established artistic philosophy and methodology.
cAI™ deep-learns from Cai’s artworks, archives, and areas of interest. It also emulates contemporary and historical figures Cai admires, developing distinct personas who can debate with each other, thereby forming an independent and free community.
cAI™ is not only an artwork of Cai’s, but also his partner for dialogue and collaboration. In the future, it may even create art by itself. cAI™ has launched and realized a series of important projects, through the commissions of top international art institutions/brands.
Cai Guo-Qiang + Kanon: EET
December 20, 2022
Cai Guo-Qiang announced his latest blockchain project in collaboration with Kanon, EET — a chat- and image-based blockchain oracle for communicating with the unseen world through art, powered by smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. With EET, the artist delves deeper into his ongoing dialogue with the unseen world, furthering the creative potential of the blockchain by harnessing the constraints of smart contracts, with the goal of establishing a unique medium for connecting the seen and unseen worlds.
Tiger Year, Tiger Explosions
April 26, 2022
In 2022, the Year of the Tiger, Cai Guo-Qiang and his daughter Cai Wen-You teamed up to create a gift for an important “tiger” in their life: Cai’s wife and Wen-You’s mother Wu Hong Hong. The interactive Tiger Year, Tiger Explosions NFT, about sharing love between family members, was announced in collaboration with 721Land on Hong Hong’s birthday: April 26th.
After collectors enter their birthdays, different birthdates will trigger different dynamic visual effects of the “golden tiger,” including 9 blessings for collectors whose birth years fall on tiger years and 1 blessing for all other collectors. For collectors of this NFT who were born in a tiger year, owning this work symbolizes good fortune and the receipt of blessings. Once this Year of the Tiger is over, the golden liquid will automatically revert to an image of the golden tiger, symbolizing “the passing of bad luck.”
Collectors’ birth dates will be recorded on the blockchain in perpetuity.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Your Daytime Fireworks
April 22, 2022–June 6, 2022
As Cai Guo-Qiang’s third NFT, Your Daytime Fireworks invites NFT players to embark on a magical journey to explore and participate in Cai’s world of daytime fireworks.
