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September 24, 2014 Rhett Jones

For his new exhibit opening September 27th on Alcatraz Island, embattled artist and activist Ai Weiwei has assembled 176 portraits of political prisoners and people in exile for their political beliefs — in LEGOs. Ai spent six months compiling a list of people he wanted to feature, including Edward Snowden, Reeyot Alemu and Chelsea Manning. After the list was finalized, ten designers broke […]

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March 28, 2014 Marina Galperina

The new documentary Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case documentary (directed by Andreas Johnsen) begins where Never Sorry left off. It focuses on the questionable charges, constant surveillance, police harassment and further censorship that the rebellious artist faced after being kidnapped and imprisoned by government goons. After 81 days of solitary detention world famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is put under house arrest. […]

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February 28, 2014 Marina Galperina

Want to smash some shit? Go to AiWeiweiWhoops.Net. Why? When painter Maximo Caminero threw and shattered an Ai Weiwei’s artwork in Miami last week, we didn’t buy his excuse: “I saw Ai Weiwei’s photos behind the vases where he drops an ancient Chinese vase and breaks it. And I saw it as a provocation by Weiwei […]

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February 19, 2014 Marina Galperina

Cubist painter Maximo Caminero was charged with criminal mischief after destroying an artwork by contemporary Chinese artist and dissident activist Ai Weiwei at the Pérez Art Museum Miami on Sunday. According to his arrest report, the 51-year-old artist picked up one of the Colored Vases on display at Ai Weiwei’s “According to What?” exhibit and after a security guard told him to […]

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September 27, 2013 Kyle Chayka

Famous Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has been pretty busy lately. In addition to releasing a widely talked about heavy metal album and two music videos to accompany it, he designed a few skateboards as well. These three decks are available with either a documentation image from Weiwei’s well-known Sunflower Seeds installation or one of two stills from the […]

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June 21, 2013 Kyle Chayka

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has followed up on his first dramatic metal video depicting his 81-day imprisonment in great detail with his newest release. It’s a slightly more toned-down atmosphere, and while continuing to be as politically charged as his previous material, it provides more of a direct, behind-the-scenes look into the life of an the artist repeatably harassed […]

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June 6, 2013 Kyle Chayka

Well-known Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei just did the cover art for this month’s issue of TIME magazine. While the cover bears many visual similarities to the Chinese propaganda posters of yesteryear it remains quite timid in comparison to some of the artist’s more recent works. It’s also clean and simple, and okay. Ai Weiwei as persecuted […]

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May 30, 2013 Julia Dawidowicz

Almost two years after his release from Chinese prison, dissident artist Ai Weiwei addresses his politically motivated 80 day incarceration with S.A.C.R.E.D., currently on view at the Venice Biennale. It’s a series of six dioramas, each representing a scene from his time behind bars — in fiberglass and iron, 377 x 198 x 153 cm. Set inside boxes which […]

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May 22, 2013 Marina Galperina

Sorry for the money shot upfront, but wow. We’ve been anticipating dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei‘s heavy metal music and here it is: “Dumbass.” Or something worse, really, something the New York Times only refers to as “a rather vulgar Chinese word.” Ai worked with Wong Kar-wai’s cinematographer Christopher Doyle, which is why the video is […]

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May 10, 2013 Marina Galperina

Ai Weiwei is powerful artist, badass, oppressive government agitator, metal musician… BARBER??? Sign me up, b. We’ve seen this scene in the doc Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry. The much-liked artist has sidewalk soirees. Culture people come. Regular denizens too. They all, like, dine and chill and make gov goons unhappy just by existing, yeah? Well, here’s one journalist’s […]

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