Chinese Dissident Artist Ai Weiwei’s First Solo in India

Child Play’, a work by Ai Weiwei, exhibited by Galleria Continua at India Art Fair, New Delhi, in February 2025. Toy bricks (LEGO), 76 x 76 cm. / 29.92 x 29.92 in. © Archana Khare-Ghose

Ai Weiwei’s first solo show in India opened at Nature Morte, New Delhi, on January 15.

Ai Weiwei, one of the cotemporary world’s most well-known artists, is now having his first solo show in India. Though the Chinese dissident artist, born 1957, will visit New Delhi during the India Art Fair (February 6-9, NSIC Grounds, Okhla, New Delhi), his solo show opened at the Nature Morte gallery on January 15.

The show, titled ‘Ai Weiwei’, will run through February 22, 2026, at the gallery’s The Dhan Mill space in Chhatarpur Hills.

According to information shared by The Met, “Household Gods: Hindu Devotional Prints, 1860–1930 presents the first encyclopedic exhibition of these chromolithographic prints from the pioneering studio presses of Calcutta (Kolkata), Poona (Pune), and Bombay (Mumbai). These mass-produced prints became a powerful means of expressing Indian religious identity at a time when the country was experiencing the first stirrings of the Independence movement.

Featuring approximately 120 works, shown in four rotations, from The Met’s collection of chromolithographic prints, along with paintings and portable triptych shrines, Household Gods provides a unique window on the vibrant tradition of Indian devotional imagery on the cusp of modernity.”

Ai Weiwei in 2017. Image courtesy: Wikipedia/ CC BY SA 4.0/ Jindrich Nosen

Weiwei is most well-known for helping design the Bird’s Nest stadium for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 before openly criticizing the Chinese government. It led to his detention for 81 days in 2011, being released on June 22. He was allowed to leave China only in 2015, and since then, he has lived between Portugal, Germany, and the UK. Weiwei’s work focuses on human rights abuses, created using video, photography, wallpaper, porcelain and a variety of other media, including LEGO bricks, some of which were shown at the India Art Fair in New Delhi in February 2025. (Image on top) Some of his globally known works are Sunflower Seeds, Forever, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, and Trees, among others.

The solo show at Nature Morte presents sculptures, installations, and mixed-media works that the artist has created in the past two decades. As per reports on the Internet, the exhibition also includes pieces created as a personal homage to India.