Cao Fei’s first major solo show in China and largest and most comprehensive career retrospective to date assembles works from the artist’s two decade-long career, situating the threads present in her diverse practice amidst rapid development in contemporary society.

Structured into four sections that echo the flow of themes and locales in her work—The South, The City, The Workshop, and The Simulation—the exhibition situates Cao Fei's practice within the context of her own artistic development and the country’s profound social upheavals in the past three decades. Cao Fei’s early performances and experimental video works reflect her bold creative attitude, the new aesthetic and cultural sensibilities effected by economic development in Guangzhou, and the influence of Hong Kong’s mass culture.

Cao Fei uses multimedia formats—photography, film, video, virtual reality, and installation—to surreally depict the dramatic social changes of a globalizing China and the state of the individual under such conditions, fluidly shifting between documenting reality and creating fantasy in her art.