Recent Projects
cAI™: An Artificial Intelligence Project
April 25, 2023
Contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s artificial intelligence (AI) art project, cAI™ (pronounced “AI Cai”), draws from his long-established artistic philosophy and methodology to develop a custom AI program. The AI deep learns from Cai’s rich oeuvre, extensive writings, archival materials, and documentation. cAI™ also acquires knowledge in the diverse fields in which Cai has had a lifelong intellectual interest, such as cosmology and the unseen world.
cAI™ is an expansive, experimental art project, a multi-modal synthesis that grows organically alongside the course of Cai’s life and with the advancement of new technology. It is both a new work by Cai and a collaborative partner with whom he is in dialogue—a partner who has the potential to create independently in the future.
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.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Exploding the Self
September 3, 2021
Following the success of his record-setting debut NFT drop, artist Cai Guo-Qiang is releasing a second NFT in an online sale hosted by TR Lab—a small surprise for the NFT community. The sale, which begins on September 3rd at 9 AM ET, consists of 99 editions of Exploding the Self. Each edition is priced at 999 USD, in an endeavor to make Cai’s latest work accessible to a wider audience. The proceeds from the sale will go towards the Rockbund Art Museum in support of the museum’s education programs.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Odyssey and Homecoming
Museum of Art Pudong, Shanghai
July 8, 2021–March 7, 2022
The Museum of Art Pudong (MAP), located beside the Oriental Pearl television tower in Shanghai, will open its doors to the public for the first time on July 8, 2021. Designed by the renowned Ateliers Jean Nouvel, MAP aspires to become a new landmark of Shanghai’s cultural landscape and a platform for international exchange of arts and culture. For its inaugural program, the museum will present three major exhibitions: Light: Works from Tate’s Collection; Joan Miro. Women, Birds, Stars; Cai Guo-Qiang: Odyssey and Homecoming.
Touring from the Palace Museum in Beijing where it opened last December, Odyssey and Homecoming features 119 of Cai’s signature gunpowder paintings and other works, including his widely acclaimed first-ever VR work Sleepwalking in the Forbidden City. The works in the exhibition represent Cai’s research, exploration, and voyage across the globe, recreating his Individual’s Journey Through Western Art History project for audiences in China.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Transient Eternity
July 14–August 14, 2021
Rockbund Art Museum (RAM), Shanghai, is delighted to announce the official launch of its brand-new digital platform RAM+, partnering with TR Lab, a pioneering platform dedicated to the discovery of NFT art from the world’s leading artists. Ten years after their first collaboration, RAM is honored to once again work with artist Cai Guo-Qiang, who curated its inaugural exhibition in 2010. On the occasion of RAM’s 10th anniversary, Cai has created his first Non-Fungible Token (NFT) project Transient Eternity—101 Ignitions of Gunpowder Paintings. Beginning July 14 at 9 PM (Beijing time, UTC+8), the artwork will be featured in a 48-hour charity auction on the TR Lab platform (trlab.com), on view until August 14, 2021.