Cai Guo-Qiang returns to London after two decades with landmark exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey

White Cube is pleased to announce a collaboration with internationally acclaimed artist Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1957, Quanzhou, Fujian, China), comprising a solo exhibition coinciding with Frieze London, along with the presentation of key works at the 2025 edition of Art Basel in June.

Based in New York since 1995, Cai is best known for his monumental outdoor explosion events, gunpowder paintings and large-scale installations – works that transcend the two-dimensional plane to oscillate freely between nature and society.

Grounded in Eastern philosophy and contemporary social issues, his often site-specific projects engage local culture and history. Cai’s expansive practice spans painting, installation, video and performance, as well as pioneering work in digital media – including projects in virtual and augmented reality, blockchain and artificial intelligence, the latter through his custom-built model, cAI™.

The exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey opens in September 2025 and marks the artist’s first project in London in over 20 years, following his iconic explosion event at Tate Modern in 2003, which dramatically unfolded across the Millennium Bridge and culminated in the gallery’s Turbine Hall.

Featuring a selection of Cai’s signature gunpowder paintings created over the past decade, the show highlights the artist’s radical exploration of the material, in which he ignites explosives directly onto various substrates such as paper, canvas, glass and mirror. In 2015, after nearly three decades of working primarily with black gunpowder for his two-dimensional works, Cai began incorporating more coloured gunpowder into his practice, turning his attention towards painterly concerns. With subtle references to flora and fauna, the vibrant works on view explore the nature of painting and abstraction, whilst highlighting the artist’s long-standing engagement with the Western art canon, including the work of the Old Masters.

Over his prolific career, Cai has produced over 650 projects worldwide, including solo exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as Museo del Prado in Madrid and Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy. He served as the Director of Visual Effects and Fireworks for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, and is the subject of the 2016 Netflix documentary Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang, directed by Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald.

Alongside the Bermondsey exhibition, which runs from 25 September until 9 November 2025, White Cube will show a selection of Cai’s gunpowder paintings – including Red Birds (2022) – at Art Basel (Booth C13) in June.