1958年生于四川，从上世纪90年代起他开始艺术的实践，即被视为中国当代艺术领域的先锋。汪建伟在浙江美术学院（今中国美术学院）学习绘画期间大量阅读存在主义哲学和中国历史，受到这些经验的影响，他早期以绘画为主的创作带有强烈的实验性以及复杂的观念；而自上世纪90年代至今，汪建伟持续探索知识综合与跨学科对当代艺术的影响，尝试使用不同学科的方法论去创造新的艺术语言，即在众多的关系中，从知识层面发展和建立一种新的主体的可能性；在知识综合的背景下，以哲学式的质询，实践一种交叉学科的观看世界方式，并赋予这些实践以形式。为此，其艺术作品呈现多元样式，跨越影像录像、戏剧、多媒体、装置、绘画和文本等领域。
Born in 1958 in Sichuan, Wang Jianwei began his art career in the 1990s and is regarded as a pioneer in Chinese contemporary art. Wang read a lot of books related to existentialist philosophy and Chinese history during his study of painting in Zhejiang Academy of Art (now China Academy of Art). Influenced by these experiences, his early painting-based creations featured strong experimental and complex concepts. Since the 1990s, he has continued to explore the impact of knowledge synthesis and interdisciplinary on contemporary art, and tried to use the methodology of different disciplines to create new artistic languages, that is, the possibility of developing and establishing a new subject from the knowledge level in many relationships. In the context of knowledge synthesis, he practices an interdisciplinary way of viewing the world through philosophical inquiry and endows these practices with forms. For this reason, his art works show multiple styles, spanning the fields of video recording, drama, multimedia, installation, painting and text.
汪建伟应邀参加了国际、国内众多电影节、戏剧节、艺术展览和重要学术活动，著名的卡塞尔文献展、威尼斯双年展、光州双年展和圣保罗双年展都曾展出过他的作品。其近年个展如：“脏物”，北京长征空间；“时间寺”，美国纽约所罗门•R•古根海姆美术馆；“...或者事件导致了每一个无效的结果”，北京长征空间；“黄灯”，北京尤伦斯当代艺术中心。群展如：“变化的艺术——中国新方向”，英国伦敦海沃美术馆；“现代中国”，美国现代艺术博物馆（MoMA）；“移动中的城市”，美国P.S.１当代艺术中心、英国伦敦海沃美术馆。
Wang Jianwei has participated on invitation in many international and domestic film festivals, theatre festivals, art exhibitions and important academic activities. He has shown works internationally in many exhibitions including the famous Kassel Documenta, Venice Biennial, Kwangju Art Biennial and São Paulo Art Biennial. His recent solo exhibitions include "Dirty Substance" at Long March Space in Beijing, "Time Temple" at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, “…event matured, accomplished in sight of all non-existent human outcomes” at Long March Space in Beijing, "Yellow Lantern" at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing. His group exhibitions include "Art of Change: New Directions from China" at Hayward Gallery, London, UK, "Modern China" at Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), "Moving City" at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, U.S., and Hayward Gallery, London, UK,
2008年，汪建伟获得了美国当代艺术基金会（FCA）授予的2008年度艺术家奖。
In 2008, Wang Jianwei won the 2008 Annual Artist Award from Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA).
可以被理解为，是对于“人类世”，即一切以人类活动为中心而界定的地质纪元的重新审视。《地理的意志》带给我们一种新的目光，我们有可能尝试去建立一种新的理解自己和自然的方式，在这样一种视角中，自然、技术、人成为合作者并形成了新的关系，在这个过程中，自然的元素通过新的技术跨越了它们自身，将新的形式刻印在材料上。
It can be understood as a re-examination of the “anthropocene”, a geological era with all human activities as its focus. The Will of Geography brings us a new look that we may try to establish a new way of understanding ourselves and nature. In such a perspective, nature, technology, and people become partners and form a new relationship. In this process, natural elements cross themselves through new techniques. Then, new forms are imprinted on materials.
