Cathy Mo

    mchengmail@tom.com

    NANHAI E-cool, an innovative area in Shekou, Nanshan District, is hosting an open-air art exhibition featuring six local and international artists who present their works in different styles and mediums, as part of the Nanhai E-cool Innovative Culture Festival.

    In six pavilions, the “Pink Elephant Art+ International Original Art Exhibition” showcases more than 20 original pieces by Frenchmen Martin Larronde and Michel Bertrand, Chinese artists Vina Tian and Tony Liu, Canadian Craig Anderson and American Casandra Mei-Fong Lee.

    The artworks on display include oil paintings, mixed medium sculptures, decorative and graphic paintings as well as modern art compositions.

    “La Déclaration,” a sculpture combining Western abstract elements with traditional Chinese lacquer painting techniques, is created by Martin Larronde.

    “Combining the newest and oldest techniques, I make sculptures with the help of high technology such as computer 3-D design, robots and the latest space-age resins. Then I apply Chinese vegetal lacquer in the oldest traditional ways, enlightening them with egg shells, silver foil or mixing with clay and hemp canvas for texture,” Larronde said.

    The work “La Déclaration” expresses the ambiguity a beautiful girl would find decrypting a suitor’s words for true love or merely physical kinds of attraction. “The duality of emotions like melancholy and anger, cultural bridges, relationship to nature are all a part of our life and are all inspirations for my works,” he said.

    Michel Bertrand (Saja) said he greatly enjoyedparticipating in the activity. He said Nanhai E-cool is a good place for the exhibition, with the bars and shops providing a warm and intimate atmosphere, as well as beautiful frames for the exhibition. The fact that the exhibits are displayed on a street also makes it more alive and touches a broader public than the usual indoor art galleries. “It is quite a new experience. With the city center being a short walk away, bringing art here is like bringing even more life to this place,” Bertrand said.

    Sponsored by Nanhai E-cool, the exhibition is held in collaboration with the Pink Elephant Art Institution and ART+, which is a Shenzhen-based independent non-profit art organization that was formed by some 15 artists from different countries.

    Date: Through Dec. 20

    Venue: Building 2, Nanhai E-cool Innovation Park, Gongye Road 3, Shekou, Nanshan District