Button Up!, with Ai Weiwei.

One of the more memorable books I’ve read in recent years was 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, a memoir by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei that takes us from his humble beginnings in China, with his acclaimed poet father Ai Qing, through to his ascendancy in the international art world, his detention by Chinese authorities and his subsequent activism and art. This morning I had the great opportunity to walk with Ai Weiwei through his monumental new show Button Up!, which looks at trade, empire and exploitation. The exhibition opens tomorrow at Aviva Studios in Manchester.

Ai Weiwei beside his artwork ‘Eight Nation Alliance Flags’. © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2026.

“For me, a single artist in their studio, stretching a canvas and using one brush was never sexy, but two people working together is already interesting because it involves communication and organisation. If it’s a thousand people painting sunflower seeds, I think it’s beautiful.” - Ai Weiwei.

Internationally renowned artist and activist Ai Weiwei turns his critical gaze to the last 200 years of global history with this major new exhibition. Monumental in scale and ambition, Ai Weiwei: Button Up! is the artist’s most expansive presentation in the North to date.

In Button Up!, the artist turns his lens on two centuries of Chinese and British relations. Taking inspiration from Manchester, a city at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, Button Up! explores how historic systems of trade, empire and exploitation resonate in today’s humanitarian and political crises. - Factory International website.

Ai Weiwei walks through ‘Button Up!, Manchester, July 2026 © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2026.

Ai Weiwei in front of his artwork ‘History of Bombs’, in his exhibition ‘Button Up!, Manchester, July 2026 © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert 2026.

All images are available to licence, and all are copyright © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, 2026, all rights reserved.