Born in 1978 in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, Cao Fei earned a BFA from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2001.

Cao Fei’s works have been exhibited at a number of international biennales and triennales, including Shanghai Biennale (2004), Moscow Biennale (2005), Taipei Biennale (2006), the 15th & 17th Biennale of Sydney (2006 and 2010), Istanbul Biennial (2007), Yokohama Triennale (2008), and the 50th, 52nd & 56th Venice Biennale (2003, 2007 and 2015). Exhibitions and screenings of her work have taken place at Serpentine Gallery (2006 and 2008) and Tate Modern in London (2002, 2013 and 2014); New Museum (2009), Guggenheim Museum (2011 and 2018), and MoMA in New York (2016 and 2015); Fondation Louis Vuitton (2016), Palais de Tokyo (2005 and 2017), and Centre Pompidou in Paris (2019, 2014, 2003).

Cao Fei’s recent projects include the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative at Guggenheim Museum New York, a solo show at Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong (2018), a retrospective at K21 Düsseldorf (2018) and a solo exhibition at Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019).

She was a nominee for the Future Generation Art Prize 2010 and the finalist of Hugo Boss Prize 2010. She received the Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA) Best Young Artist Award in 2006 and Best Artist Award in 2016. She was also the recipient of Piedra de Sal Award at Cuenca Biennale in 2016

Cao Fei lives and works in Beijing.

RMB City, 2021, Augmented Reality
The Eternal Wave AR: Farewell, 2021, Augmented Reality
The Eternal Wave AR: Li Nova, 2020, Augmented Reality
The Eternal Wave AR, 2020, Site-specific Augmented Reality Installation

The Eternal Wave VR, 2020, Site-specific Virtual Reality Installation, Unlimited duration

2020-2021
Augmented Reality Installation / Augmented Reality

After premiering Cao Fei’s first virtual realty work, The Eternal Wave at The Serpentine Galleries, Acute Art has collaborated with the artist on an augmented reality version of the kitchen space in which The Eternal Wave begins. Continuing the artist’s exploration of virtual possibilities, this new iteration of the project responds to the current moment by shifting from the VR headset to the smartphone screen, an experimentation with technology that reflects a changed reality to the one in which the exhibition opened.

Viewers are able to use their smartphone to explore the installation (currently on view at the Serpentine Galleries) by tapping on the objects and furniture to activate the environment in different ways.

2020
Virtual Reality Installation / Virtual Reality

Beijing-based artist Cao Fei’s first virtual reality work, produced by Acute Art, is entitled The Eternal Wave. This work follows the artist’s previous immersive digital works such as RMB City (2007) created and executed in the online 3D virtual world, Second Life.

An ongoing exploration of virtuality, reality and the perception of self in relation to technology, Cao Fei’s work expands on themes of automation, labour and domesticity.

A deeply immersive experience, visually and literally, the viewer becomes drawn into the deeper realms of the artist’s creative universe. An interactive VR work, the viewer is a participant and player – acting out a role in the artist’s production.

Using the spaces of the Beijing Hongxia Theatre’s kitchen as its backdrop, the experience begins in a physical rendition the kitchen. The space is a stage set that the artist designed for her film, Nova (2019), which was based on the theatre’s original kitchen.

From this starting point, the visitor embarks on a multi-sensory journey through various portals, traversing the boundaries between time and space to explore the computers of the early electronics industry in China and the areas in and around the Hongxia Theatre.

The title of the work is taken from the 1958 Chinese film directed by Wang Ping, which focuses on the story of an underground CPC telegrapher- a key reference within Nova.

– AR

2022
Visions, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore (Group exhibition)
AR.Trail, National Gallery Victoria (Melbourne), Australia (Group exhibition)
Kaleidoscope Eyes, Leeum Museum of Art (Seoul), South Korea (Group exhibition)
Kaleidoscope Eyes, Ho-Am Museum of Art (Yongin), South Korea (Group exhibition)

2021
The Looking Glass, The Shed (NY), USA (Group exhibition)

2020
Mirage: Contemporary Art in Augmented Reality, UCCA, China (Group exhibition)
Unreal City, with Dazed, Southbank, London (Group exhibition)

– VR

2024
My City is Yours, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia

2023
Cao Fei: the future is not a dream, Pinacoteca Contemporânea, São Paulo, Brazil

2022
Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present, United Arab Emirates

2021
Cao Fei: Staging the Era, UCCA, Beijing, China
Cao Fei: Supernova, Maxxi, Rome, Italy
Cao Fei: The Eternal Wave,  M+, Hong Kong

2020
Blueprints, Serpentine Gallery, Londo, UK