Week 2- Artist- Ai Weiwei

About the Artist: Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei is an artist who was born in August 28th,1957. He lived in the united states from 1981 to 1993 where he lived first in philadelphia then san francisco for a few years. He attended both University of pennsylvania and then Berkeley where he studied english. He later moved to new york city studying at parsons school of design before attending art students league of new york but later dropped out. He has made a living drawing street portraits and working various odd jobs and later took up photography. His collection of photos were later selected and are known as the new york photgraphs. Weiwei later returned to china after his father had fallen ill and helped establish the experimental artist’ Beijing East Village along with co-publishing a series of books. He then built a studio in him home which became his first architectural project where He still works on his artwork in Beijing where he currently resides.

Formal Analysis

Ai Weiwei is an outspoken bold artist who's art includes photography, architecture, and paintings.

Content Analysis

While learning more about Ai Weiwei I looked at his photographs and how unique they are taking a political stand. Going against the government by flipping off the white house , eiffel tower and other places.

Personal Thoughts/Ideas

I thought that Ai Weiwei took a personal stand with his art by flipping off the white house and his personal choices when making art pieces using bicycles. I think his art is very unique and very different in the way he expresses his personal thoughts using art.