The headline in the NY Times reads The Art Man of Alcatraz.
Chinese artist Ai WeiWei is taking over the former maximum security prison turned National Park for his art installation of 176 portraits of prisoners of conscious and political exiles beginning next Saturday.
It’s a subject dear to his heart. The activist artist spent 81 days in confinement after speaking out against the Chinese government in 2011.
“Even now, I am still in a soft detention, my passport withheld by the state and my right to move freely across borders restricted,” he wrote in an email to the Times.
The exhibition is called “@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz,” and is organized by For-Site. The group is known for producing public art.
Will WeiWei’s latest exhibition put him at risk of being sent back to prison? You can read about that and Weiwei’s use of legos in the NY Times.
