Displaying items by tag: Ai Weiwei

London's Royal Academy of Arts has turned to crowdfunding to raise £100,000 ($156,358) to bring eight Ai Weiwei tree sculptures to the English capital. The trees will be featured as a part of the artist's upcoming show at the RA this autumn.

To incentivize donors to contribute towards the project, the RA is offering rewards including limited edition prints and private tours.

Ai Weiwei, the controversial Chinese artist, realized an auction record on Monday when his installation "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads" sold for 3.4 million British pounds (about $5.4 million) at a Phillips auction in London, though the selling price came in at the low end of estimates.

A conceptual reconstruction of the animals of the Chinese zodiac that once stood at the palace of Yuanming Yuan but was looted during the 19th century, "Circle of Animals" has traveled around the world, including stops at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and New York's Central Park.

Ai Weiwei will exhibit his work "Straight" (2008-12) as part of his first major survey in the UK, which opens at London's Royal Academy of Arts on September 19.

"Straight"—made in response to the large number of children who died as a result of shoddy construction following the Sichuan Earthquake in 2008—is made of about 200 tons of steel. The bars, which were twisted and distorted during the earthquake, were taken from the wreckage and pulled straight, thus creating the work.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei co-designed the Beijing National Stadium or "Bird's Nest" for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

The dissident and human rights' activist also has been imprisoned repeatedly by the Chinese government.

ArtReview in Oct. 2011 declared him "the most powerful artist in the world," placing him in the No. 1 slot on its annual Power 100 list of the world's most influential figures in contemporary art.

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park has acquired a work by Weiwei, one of the world's most venerated and vilified artists working today.

Phillips is used to coming in at the tail end of these auction series, with a smaller, shorter sale than Sotheby's or Christie's, and with a more contemporary, less postwar emphasis. The auctioneer's problem is to secure good examples by artists at reasonable estimates because, in most cases, the house is second or third port of call for sellers. Now in its plush, central location on London's Mayfair, with Sotheby's and the new, large Gagosian gallery-to-be just around the corner, it is also upgrading the staff. With former Christie's chief executive Ed Dolman at the helm, the latest signing is Matt Carey-Williams, a young man with a veteran's experience from Sotheby's, Gagosian, and White Cube, as deputy chairman, Europe and Asia, who was very much part of the action this evening.

The Contemporary Art Evening auction at Phillips on February 12 features works by many art world heavyweights including Andy Warhol, Allen Jones, Julian Schnabel, and Antony Gormley, but the star that is likely to steal the show is undoubtedly Ai Weiwei's sculpture "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads." This group of 12 gold-plated sculptures, portraying the signs of the Chinese zodiac, is offered as Lot 8 with a pre-sale estimate of £2-£3m.

Created in 2010 the zodiac heads are inspired by those which once comprised a water clock-fountain at the Old Summer Palace, the complex of palaces and gardens in Beijing built between 1750 and 1764 by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty.

Palm Springs Art Museum will feature the exhibition "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Gold," a group of sculptures by internationally acclaimed contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, from December 20 through May 31, 2015 at the Palm Springs Art museum.
 
The installation consists of 12 gilded bronze animal heads - rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig - that are each a representative symbol from the ancient Chinese zodiac. Ai Weiwei's work extends beyond the visual statement and reaches into history. These sculptures were based on the zodiac heads originally located at the Imperial retreat Yuanming Yuan (Old Summer Palace) just outside of Beijing, where they adorned the famed fountain-clock. The original heads were made by Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), an Italian Jesuit who executed a number of commissions for the Chinese emperor in the 18th century.

Get ready for a new public installation. A monumental sculpture featuring the animal heads of the traditional Chinese zodiac will be unveiled on September 17 outside the Adler Planetarium. “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Bronze” is by Ai Weiwei, a leading figure in the contemporary art world and China’s most outspoken political artist.

China considers Weiwei such a threat to its national security that they revoked his passport several years ago, and he is not allowed to leave the country.

Contemporary Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei's work is to go on show as the launch exhibition of the Blenheim Art Foundation in London.

Opening at Blenheim Palace this fall, the exhibition will showcase more than 50 artworks by Ai Weiwei produced over the last 30 years in the artist's most extensive U.K. exhibition ever.

The show will cover the breadth of Weiwei's career, spanning the early photography dating from his New York period in the 1980s through to new works conceived in China specifically for the exhibition.

As part of a deal with prosecutors, the man accused of smashing a vase by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in a museum here pleaded guilty Wednesday to criminal mischief but avoided any more jail time beyond the two days he spent behind bars after his arrest.

Maximo Caminero, a 51-year-old artist from the Dominican Republic, will be on probation for 18 months and serve 100 hours of community service by teaching children how to paint. Mr. Caminero also must pay restitution of $10,000, the appraised value of the vase he dropped on the floor of the Pérez Art Museum Miami on Feb. 16 in what he said was a political act.