Cai Guo-Qiang ( December 8, 1957, Guanzhou, China )

The son of a historian and painter, Cai was trained in stage design at the Shanghai Drama Institute from 1981 to 1985 and his work has, since the outset, been scholarly and often politically charged. Having accomplished himself across a variety of media, Cai initially began working with gunpowder to foster spontaneity and confront the suppression that he felt from the controlled artistic tradition and social climate in China at the time. While living in Japan from 1986 to 1995, Cai explored the properties of gunpowder in his drawings, an inquiry that eventually led to his experimentation with explosives on a massive scale, and the development of his signature explosion events, exemplified in his series, Projects for Extraterrestrials. These explosion projects, both wildly poetic and ambitious at their core, aim to establish an exchange between viewers and the larger universe around them.

Cai quickly achieved international prominence during his tenure in Japan and his work was shown widely around the world. His approach draws on a wide variety of symbols, narratives, traditions and materials such as feng shui, Chinese medicine, dragons, roller coasters, computers, vending machines and gunpowder. He has been selected as a finalist for the 1996 Hugo Boss Prize and been merited with awards such as The 48th Venice Biennial International Golden Lion Prize and the 2001 CalArts/Alpert Award in the Arts. He has also won awards for Best Exhibition and Best Installation from the International Curators Association.

Through years of artistic practice, Cai has formulated collaborative relationships with specialists and experts from various disciplines, including scientists, doctors, feng shui masters, designers, architects, choreographers, filmmakers and composers, such as Issey Miyake, Rafael Vinoly, Zaha Hadid, Tan Dun and Tsai Ming-liang among others. He is repeatedly listed among the UK journal ArtReview's Power 100.

Cai is currently a core member of the creative team and the director of visual and special effects of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics - 2008. He is also preparing for his large-scale retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York with subsequent international venues.