Biography
ao Fei investigates the intersection of technological development, popular culture and urban transformation in contemporary China. Fluctuating between the documentation of reality and the creation of fantasy, her video and installation work deals with the massive social pressures and modernisation of the changing urban landscape in China. At the same time, it presents surreal visions of the country’s past and future. Raised in Guangzhou, a city known for its rapidly evolving urban fabric, the artist foregrounds the role of the individual amid relentless industrialisation as well as the tensions between personal desires and collective social realities.
Her work has been exhibited at MAXXI, National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome (2021); UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2021); Serpentine Galleries, London (2020); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019); K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf (2018); Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2018); Guggenheim Museum, New York (2018); and MoMA PS1, New York (2016). She has also participated in the Venice Biennale (2003, 2007, 2011, 2015); Sydney Biennial (2006, 2010); New Museum Triennial, New York (2009); Yokohama Triennial (2008); Guangzhou Triennial (2002, 2005, 2008); and Istanbul Biennial (2007).
Her awards include the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, Frankfurt (2021); Best Young Artist and Best Artist, Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (2006, 2016 respectively); and Piedra de Sal, Cuenca Biennial, Ecuador (2016). She was also a finalist for the Future Generation Art Prize, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev (2010), and the Hugo Boss Prize, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York (2010).
She is a professor and master’s advisor at the School of Experimental Art at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. She earned a BFA from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (2001).
Born in in 1978 in Guangzhou, China, Cao Fei lives and works in Beijing.
