Known for his advocacy for human rights via art, globally renowned conceptual artist Ai Weiwei has always been curious about how objects are interpreted across time; and ways in which power dynamics affect this equation. With a practice developed over more than 30 years, the artist sees art as a medium for activism; and humour, playfulness, spectacle form as much a part of his process, as do found-objects and everyday items of use. In New Delhi’s Dhan Mill Compound, the artist’s latest solo exhibition brings together a series of works that span decades of Ai’s creative journey.
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Presented by Nature Morte, in collaboration with Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy, the exhibition offers Indian audiences a glimpse of Ai Weiwei’s notable series of toy-brick canvases. Renditions of famous artworks by Monet, Pollock, Vermeer, Hokusai, Da Vinci, in LEGO bricks, sit alongside new commissions that interpret Raza’s Surya Namaskar, Gaitonde’s abstract landscapes and, even, a toy-brick Pichwai. Other works in the exhibition highlight the wide array of themes that Ai Weiwei is able to touch upon through inter-disciplinary forms. Moving between the ordinary and the experimental, the mix of works presented bring out the exact temperament of a truly global artist who has been a champion of human rights across the world. Stone Axes Painted White, which comprises of over-400 Neolithic stone axe-heads and knives, Porcelain Pillar with Refugee Motif which addresses migration through hand-drawn motifs on stacked porcelain urns, and new works including F.U.C.K., an installation made out of assorted buttons and beads, and Whitewashed Remnants of History of the State of Emerging Future Works, which repurposes locally-sourced furniture, make this an all-encompassing entry into understanding the artistic rigour of Ai Weiwei.
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“Bringing Ai’s work to India isn’t about creating a spectacle — for us, it is about urgency. His work speaks to the present moment with total clarity: history, power, borders, memory. India is a place where these questions are lived, not abstract, and this exhibition invites that conversation without flinching.” said Aparajita Jain, Co-Director, Nature Morte. It is this premise that makes this exhibition a crucial one within the India Art Fair Parallel programming that has taken over Delhi this art season. Ai’s take on censorship and his ability to be provocative in the messaging his art sends out is a reminder of the power of art in times of distress. One must read it alongside current socio-political changes that have made it increasingly difficult for dissent and criticism to exist on their own. At a time when being openly critical is met with repression, art holds space for resistance to become centre-stage. And it is projects like Ai’s, that help draw a mirror to society, that feel relevant and important to ongoing discourse around change we hope to see.
Artistically, the show offers a chance to understand the depth and breadth of looking at interdisciplinary mediums and the possibilities that exist in pushing beyond traditional forms of making and viewing art. One is able to admire the ways in which the local and the global come together in the dozen artworks within the white-cube space. For viewers, this is a unique chance to encounter some of the most powerful works from across Ai Weiwei’s wide-ranging series of projects; it serves as a significant introduction to the ethos of the rebellious art and activism of one of the most important artists of our time.
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In bringing Ai Weiwei’s show to India, Nature Morte signals the importance of bold artistic projects within the contemporary arts ecosystem in the country. It is an attempt at bringing into conversation topics of borders and boundaries, and the precarity of the current condition of human rights from a global scenario. Peter Nagy, Co-Director, Nature Morte, says, “Ai Weiwei has an unmatched ability to hold the ancient and the contemporary in the same frame — craft and critique, beauty and blunt truth. Presenting his first solo show in India feels both overdue and essential, especially now, when the politics of images, movement, and belonging are shaping lives everywhere — including here.”
Ai Weiwei, presented by Nature Morte in collaboration with Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy, is open to viewers in New Delhi till February 22, 2026.
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