Cai was short listed for the 1996 Hugo Boss Prize and won the Leone d'oro award at the 1999 Venice Biennale. He has been included in numerous biennial exhibitions, including Sao Paulo (1996), Istanbul (1997) and Venice (1995, 1997, 1999, 2001). His work has also been included in all of the key surveys of new Chinese art, including 'Cities on the Move' (Hayward Gallery, London and tour, 1997) and 'Inside Out: New Chinese Art' (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and tour, 1998).
Cai was born in Quanzhou, China, in 1957. He lived in Tokyo from 1985 to 1995, before moving to New York. During the 1990s he emerged onto the international art scene and has become a major figure of contemporary Chinese art. With the exception of theAntarctic, he has made projects in all the continents of the world.
His early works from the 1980s took the form of oil paintings, but these gradually evolved as he become interested in harnessing the power of nature to develop the work in new and unusual ways.
His early e