Cai Guo-Qiang joins White Cube and presents solo booth at TEFAF New York 2026

White Cube is pleased to announce representation of New York-based artist Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1957, Quanzhou, China), coinciding with a solo booth of the artist’s work at the 2026 edition of TEFAF New York (booth 355). 

The presentation comprises a selection of Cai's bird gunpowder paintings made in the last few years. These vibrant works depict avian flocks in successive states of flight and decay, while drawing on the artist’s research into the historic glazed blue tiles known as azulejos that distinguish the architecture of Porto. The presentation marks a pivotal point in Cai’s practice, when he returned to colour after working primarily with black gunpowder for several decades. 

Works from the artist’s ambitious, multi-year project ‘An Individual’s Journey Through Western Art History’ are also featured on the booth. Initiated in 2017, this series includes solo exhibitions at significant museums and cultural sites around the world – such as the Prado Museum, Uffizi Galleries, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, National Archaeological Museum of Naples and Pompeii ruins – where the artist has engaged in dialogues with various periods of art history as represented by these institutions’ collections.   

Floral gunpowder paintings inspired by silverpoint techniques of Renaissance art, developed for his 2018 solo exhibition ‘Flora Commedia’ at the Uffizi Galleries, are shown alongside preliminary studies for his landmark ‘Odyssey and Homecoming’ project at Beijing’s Palace Museum. In 2020, Cai became the first contemporary artist to stage a solo exhibition at the museum on the occasion of the Forbidden City’s 600th anniversary.   

Cai will also participate in the 2026 edition of Normandie Impressioniste in France, with a solo exhibition in the historic Mont Saint-Michel Abbey from 19 May until 31 August. Titled ‘Radiance of Spring’, the presentation will unveil new gunpowder paintings inspired by Monet’s garden in Giverny.