Cao Fei is no doubt one of the most remarkable and powerful artists of this generation. Born in 1978 in Guangzhou, Cao Fei has grown up in the world of electronic entertainments and advertisements. Fascinated by the vibrant landscapes of the consumer society, She started with her artistic career at an extremely young age. Cao Fei has developed a highly personal language of image making demonstrating the fantasy, desire, critique and jouissance vis-à-vis the mutating reality.

Cao Fei’s work was recently shown at China Power Station: Part 1, an off-site Serpentine Gallery exhibition of contemporary Chinese video, sound and installation art co-produced by The Red Mansion Foundation at Battersea Power Station.

1978 Born in Guangzhou
1997 Graduated from the Affiliated Middle School of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
2001 Graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art
Now lives and works in Guangzhou
Solo Exhibition:
2005 “Cosplayers”, Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, New York
”Cosplayers”, CourtYard Gallery, Beijing
2004 “San Yuan Li”, CourtYard Gallery, Beijing
Group Exhibition:
2005 The 2nd Guangzhou Triennia: “BEYOND”, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou
”Out of Sight”, De Appel Foundation of Amsterdam, Amsterdam
”Parallel Realities”: Asian Art Now, 3th Fukuoka Triennale, Fukuoka, Japan
”Follow Me!” Contemporary Chinese Art at the Threshold of the Millennium, Mori Museum, Tokyo
”I still believe in miracles”, Part.II, Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris / ARC, Paris
”CIRCULAR-domus”, San Siro stadium, Milan
”Emergency Biennale in Chechnya”, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
”The 1st Moscow Biennial: Dialectics of Hope”, Mosow, Russia
”Yoko Ono: Water Event 2005”, Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, Norway
”London Chinese Film Festival 2005 SOAS”, University of London, London
“Beijing Case: Culture of the High Speed Urbanism”, German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes), German
2004 “Do It”, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami
”Nuit Blanche”, Art Public Contemporain, Paris
”Impakt Festival”, Utrecht, Netherlands
”Past in Reverse: Contemporary Art of East Asia”, San Diego Museum of Art
”Die Chinesen: Contemporary Photography and Video in China”, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany
”5th Shanghai Biennial”, Shanghai Museum of Art, Shanghai
”China Moon”, Watermill Center 2004 Summer Program, New York
”A l’Est du Sud de l’Ouest”, Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Villa Arson Nice, France
”Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video From China”, ICP and Asia Society, New York
”Taetig Sein”, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kuenst e.V. (NGBK), Berlin
”China Now”, Gramercy Theatre, Museum of Modern Art, New York
”Heads & Portraits”, Produzentengalerie, Hamburg
”Feverish Unconscious”, Chambers Fine Art, New York
”Generation Video”, Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris
”Out the Window: Spaces of Distraction”, Japan Foundation, Tokyo; Darling Art Foundation, Seoul
2003 Left Wing, Left Bank Community, Beijing
”Screening Programme”, MK2 (Bibliothèque), Paris
”Fabricated Paradises”, Le Parvis centre d’art contemporain, Ibos, France
”10th Biennial of the Moving Image”, Geneva
”Zooming into Focus”: Chinese Contemporary Photography from the Haudenschild Collection, San Diego State University & San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego
”Public Space and Personal Eyes”, Kampnagel, Hamburg
”Alors la Chine”, Centre Pompidou, Paris
”Z.O.U.”, 50th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
”+system”, Short Videos from the World 2002-2003, BizArt, Shanghai
”The Minority Is Subordinate to the Majority”, BizArt, Shanghai
2002 “In/Video”, Milan
”Kino Film Festival”, Manchester, UK
Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou
”Media City” Seoul 2002, Korea
Gwangju Biennale, Korea
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France
”Making China”, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York
2001 “Weightlessness”, Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin
”The New Media Art Festival: Non-linear Narrative”, National Academy of Art, Hangzhou
”Living in Time”, Hamburger Bahnhof Contemporary Art Museum, Berlin
”City Slang”, Art Village, Hong Kong
Berlin Biennale, Berlin
”Take Part”, Galerie Urs Meile, Luzern, Switzerland
”Virtual Future”, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou
2000 “Fuck Off”, Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai
”Pusan International Contemporary Art Festival: Leaving the Island”, Pusan, Korea
”PhotoEspana 2000”, Madrid
1999 “8th Biennial of Moving Images”, Saint-Gervais Geneva, Switzerland
”4th Cross-Strait”, Hong Kong and Macau Student Film & Video Festival, Hong Kong
“Video screening”, Galerie Büro Friedrich, Berlin