Cai Guo-qiang is one of China’s most famous living artists. But for those familiar with the gunpowder paintings and outdoor pyrotechnic spectacles that made his name, his latest exhibition in Macau may be a bit of a head-scratcher.
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“cAI Lab 2.0 – Is It Your Gaze That Meets Mine, or Mine That Seeks Yours?” is taking place at the MGM Macau as part of the wider Art Macao festival 2025. The exhibition’s title, while not clarifying much, does hint at having something to do with AI.
All of the 67-year-old’s artworks featured in the exhibition are generated by cAI – an AI model Cai and his team created in 2023 after seven years of research.
These works include 12 texts projected onto the walls of a narrow corridor; digital fireworks that appear on floor-to-ceiling screens; and phone booths in which visitors directly converse with cAI.
Also on show are around a dozen pieces of gunpowder art created by cAI, using a humanoid arm sprinkling gunpowder onto canvases and setting off explosions – which is just how Cai makes his signature art.
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