Cai Guo-Qiang

Cai Guo-Qiang (simplified Chinese: 蔡国强; traditional Chinese: 蔡國強; pinyin: Cài Gúoqiáng; born December 8, 1957 in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province) is a Chinese contemporary artist and curator. He currently lives and works in New York City. Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China. He recalled as a child hearing the "upsetting yet eerily beautiful blasts of artillery being fired across the straight." His father, Cai Ruiqin, was a calligrapher and traditional painter who worked in a bookstore. As a result, Cai Guo-Qiang was exposed early on to Western literature as well as traditional Chinese art forms. As an adolescent and teenager, Cai witnessed the social effects of the Cultural Revolution first-hand, personally participating in demonstrations and parades himself. He grew up in a setting where explosions were common, whether they were the result of cannon blasts or celebratory fireworks. He also “saw gunpowder used in both good ways and bad, in destruction...