Major transformations

The exhibition presents about 30 groups of works spanning nearly three decades, including many signature and long-term projects of Cao.

Her works have reflected the era in which they were created, offering a compassionate portrayal of societal evolution and the lives of ordinary individuals.

At a forum at the opening of the exhibition in June, Ye Ying, editor-in-chief of The Art Journal, pointed out that Cao's works often reflect an intimate concern for individuals amid the changes in China and imbue ordinary people with dramatic expression.

Born into an artistic family in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, Cao spent her formative years amid the trailblazing wave of China's reform and opening-up. Consequently, her early major works capture the rise and fall of manufacturing.

Whose Utopia, created in 2006, mirrors the evolution of factories in the Pearl River Delta region in southern China, serving as a microcosm of the nation's "world factory" and representing a focal point for Chinese engagement and interpretation within the realm of globalization.

A reverberation of this work is Asia One, which was created in 2018 in a giant warehouse of JD, one of China's biggest e-commerce platforms. It is a response to the transformation and renewal of the manufacturing industry, Cao explains.

Tan, one of the curators, comments that in this period, Cao's works were rooted in the fertile ground of the city, brimming with "urban sophistication".