Chinese artist Cai Guo-qiang uses AI to create his โ€˜gunpowder artโ€™ in Macau exhibition


Cai Guo-qiang is one of Chinaโ€™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.

โ€œcAI Lab 2.0 โ€“ Is It Your Gaze That Meets Mine, or Mine That Seeks Yours?โ€ is taking place at the MGM Macau as part of the wider Art Macao festival 2025. The exhibitionโ€™s title, while not clarifying much, does hint at having something to do with AI.

All of the 67-year-oldโ€™s artworks featured in the exhibition are generated by cAI โ€“ 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.

Cai (centre) gives a tour of his new exhibition in Macau during its opening ceremony.
Cai (centre) gives a tour of his new exhibition in Macau during its opening ceremony.

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 โ€“ which is just how Cai makes his signature art.

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