The Shiseido Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Chinese artist Cao Fei.

Born in Guangzhou, China in 1978, Cao Fei has emerged as one of China's most promising up-and-coming young female artists, with work spanning a variety of mediums including film, photography, performance, and installation.

As a girl Cao Fei first developed a strong interest in Japanese and Western pop culture brought in to China via Hong Kong. She began creating film works while enrolled at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and during her school years became known as one of China's most pioneering digital video artists. Since then she has taken up conspicuous elements of modern youth culture (hip-hop music, "costume play," etc.) in works that cast a sharply insightful–and sometimes rather humorous–perspective on aspects of modern Chinese society, including its urban chaos and the explosive social changes resulting from economic liberalization.
Cao Fei has shown her work at numerous international exhibitions, including the Berlin. Biennale in 2001, the Korea Kwangju Biennale in 2002, the Venice Biennale in 2003 and 2007, the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale in Japan in 2005, and the Yokohama Triennale in Japan in 2008.

The exhibition at the Shiseido Gallery will introduce Cao Fei's experimental "RMB City Project," which she has been developing since January 2009 via the online virtual reality platform "Second Life" (http://jp.secondlife.com).
"RMB City" is the name of a virtual city existing on Second Life, which Cao Fei created as a public platform for creative activity within a virtual space. It includes many of the distinctive constructions, buildings, scenes, and places seen in China today, and in this sense functions as a microcosm reflective of modern China.

At the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, Cao Fei presented i. Mirror, a semi-documentary on her experiences and encounters over half a year in Second Life as her avatar (online personality) "China Tracy." Also in 2007, at the 10th Istanbul Biennale, she presented RMB City: A Second Life City Planning, a video exploration of RMB City's urban development planning. Following these, she made the rounds of exhibitions around the world to advance and promote the planning and construction of RMB City, which welcomed its grand opening in January 2009. This coincided with the launch of the "RMB City Project," which will spend two years traveling to art museums and international exhibitions around the world tracking the growth and changes occurring in RMB City.

This exhibition will also include a presentation of the new Live in RMB City, which is part of the larger RMB City Project. The Shiseido Gallery welcomes one and all to come enjoy this fascinating virtual world created by Cao Fei.

• Cao Fei / China Tracy
• Live in RMB City, Video
• © RMB City 2009