Brooklyn Museum to Host First North American Survey of Artist-Activist Ai Weiwei, 4/18-8/10

The Brooklyn Museum will soon host the first North American survey of the work of artist-activist Ai Weiwei, called "Ai Weiwei: According to What?", running April 18 through August 10, 2014.

The Brooklyn presentation includes several major works not seen in previous venues and marks the first large-scale museum exhibition of Ai's work in New York. Brooklyn is the final stop on the exhibition tour.

A new addition to the exhibition is S.A.C.R.E.D., a monumental work created in response to the artist's 81-day incarceration by the Chinese authorities in 2011, making its first appearance in North America since it debuted at the 2013 Venice Biennale. Also new to the exhibition is Ye Haiyan, an installation of photographs and the personal belongings of a women's rights activist who has been evicted from her home multiple times by the Chinese government.

The exhibition will include the artist's work Colored Vases, which was recently vandalized while the exhibition was on view at the Pérez Museum in Miami.

Ai Weiwei is a conceptual artist, sculptor, photographer, filmmaker, and activist whose interdisciplinary practice examines the interrelations between art, society, and individual experience while exploring universal topics such as culture, history, politics, and tradition.

This exhibition in Brooklyn has been made possible by Lisson Gallery, Mary Boone Gallery, the Andrew J. and Christine C. Hall Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Galerie Urs Meile, and the Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Exhibition Fund. Additional support is provided by the American Chai Trust for education and public programs.

Pictured: Ai Weiwei, 2012. Photo by Gao Yuan.