It’s been an interesting week for Ai Weiwei. In New York City to supervise the installation of three shows in four gallery spaces that all open on Saturday, the controversial Chinese artist has also participated in a couple of talks, received a prestigious award, attended the Village Halloween Parade, signed copies of his latest self-titled monograph, and even had time to go by Trump Tower to flip it the bird. Yes, Ai has been a busy man.

Last Saturday, Ai stopped by the Brooklyn Museum to participate in a conversation with Cuban artist-activist Tania Bruguera. An institution that strongly supports his work, the museum hosted a retrospective of the artist, Ai Weiwei: According to What?, in 2014. Ai had input in the show, but unfortunately, never saw it in person, as it occurred during the four-year period (2011-2015) in which the Chinese authorities banned him from traveling internationally. Saturday’s discussion was promoted as being Ai’s first visit to Brooklyn since the return of his passport, and seen as a forum to explore both artists’ “mutual interests in positioning their work as a catalyst for social change.”

During the talk, which found Bruguera asking Ai questions about his work, things grew rather tense, according to ARTnews. When Bruguera inquired about the ethics of a photo Ai recreated of a 3-year-old refugee who washed up on the shore in Turkey, Ai fired back “I am an artist, I am not a priest.” Bruguera continue to press him on with the same topic, which resulted in Ai quizzing her about how many people died in the Mediterranean Sea this year. When she didn’t know the correct number, Ai blasted, “Exactly — you don’t know the number, because you are not a full political artist, you are only a Cuban political artist.” Bruguera found that a good time to shift topic.

A conversation Ai had later in the week with Jerome A. Cohen at the Council on Foreign Relations was far less combative. The artist again discussed his work and also fielded questions about the current state of China, human rights abuses around the world, and the upcoming US presidential election. He also mentioned that he his currently working on an extensive documentary about the global refugee crisis. He has been visiting camps all over the world and has 20 teams filming. He personally has done over 100 interviews with politicians, NGOs, refugees, gravediggers, smugglers, priests and more. His next stop for the project is the Mexican border.

On Wednesday (November 2), Ai was one of seven trailblazers to receive a WSJ Magazine Innovator Award. Selected for his contributions to the art world, this year’s other honorees include Tom Ford for film, The Weeknd for music, and Melinda Gates for philanthropy. Sir Nicholas Serota presented Ai with the award. According to Vogue, the artist kept his acceptance speech to a brief four words, “Thank you. Thank you.” Ai, along with the other recipients, is featured in the November issue of the WSJ Magazine, which is on newsstands now.

Ai also found time on Friday to stop by TASCHEN New York to sign copies of a self-titled monograph that came out earlier this year. The book offers a comprehensive look at Ai’s life and work from his youth in China until his release from Chinese custody in 2015. The handsome volume is available for purchase now.

As for the shows that are opening in New York City on Saturday, Ai is bringing refugee-themed exhibits to Jeffrey Deitch’s gallery at 18 Wooster, Lisson Gallery in Chelsea, and both Mary Boone spaces, Uptown and Chelsea. The Deitch show, entitled Laundromat, is perhaps the most grim and somber of the lot and makes the crisis very personal. Earlier this year, Ai visited a refugee camp in the Greek village of Idomeni where some 14,000 people were stranded following new border restrictions. During his visit, Ai made headlines by bringing a piano into the camp for a young Syrian refugee to play, and for getting a haircut from a migrant barber. The camp was later closed and Ai and his team collected articles of clothing the evacuated refugees left behind. Ai took these back to his studio in Berlin, washed them and they are now installed at Deitch along with photographs taken at the camp. The floor of the gallery is also covered with approximately 2,000 messages from a private WhatsApp group Ai and his assistants began in January 2016 to capture media reports relevant to the global refugee crisis.

Ai’s shows at Lisson and Mary Boone are both entitled 2016: Roots and Branches and feature a variety of mediums. At Mary Boone, his show includes a circular field of 40,000 spouts broken from Chinese porcelain teapots, a 25-foot-high tree made from dead tree parts taken from the mountains of Southern China, and new lego works. Over at Lisson, Ai has filled the space with felled, cast-iron tree trunks and root sculptures set against a wallpaper installation that tells the story of refugees. The shows explore Ai’s continued interest in tradition and contemporaneity, and also address the prevalence of displacement in post-modern societies.

Ai’s shows at Mary Boone, Jeffrey Deitch and Lisson are on view through December 23, 2016.

Image above from Ai Weiwei’s Instagram account.