Luo Songsong

    songsongluo@126.com

    TO celebrate the 65th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, Guan Shanyue Art Museum is displaying over 170 works of art ranging from traditional Chinese paintings and sculptures to modern designs created by local artists over the past few years.

    Organized by Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism and co-hosted by Shenzhen Fine Art Institute, the exhibition highlights more than 50 pieces of outstanding art work selected for the 12th National Exhibition of Fine Arts that is held every five years.

    Paintings with Shenzhen characters are the main part of the exhibition. Yang Xiaoyang, deputy president of Shenzhen Fine Art Institute, said a number of local artists have begun to understand the city and show concern about the city’s people through art.

    Xue Yang, a young artist from Guan Shanyue Art Museum, depicts the unique cultural scene of the CBD book city square, comprised of music band, street painters, crowds of passersby and a U Station with “You are a Shenzhener once you come here” written in Chinese on an interior wall.

    In addition, many paintings feature the city’s landmark buildings and its greatest man. Created by Chen Xiangbo, president of Guan Shanyue Art Museum, an oil painting entitled “Spring Stories” portrays a smiling Deng Xiaoping walking out from clusters of red flowers.

    Many artists also try to demonstrate the historical changes the city has gone through during the last 30 years. He Liangfeng, a young man who moved to Shenzhen three years ago and runs a small shop at Dafen Oil Painting Village with his wife, created such a work.

    His painting features several small empty old boats laying on the water and an abandoned offshore operation base while a vague scene of a modern metropolis appears in the distance. “Shenzhen was a fishing village, and I want to share that past with the audience,” said He.

    There are also some visually stunning paintings of piles of containers at a port to show the booming economic development of the city. However, there are also some paintings that show the darker sides of Shenzhen, such as urban villages, to show the city’s unbalanced development.

    Except for paintings of local elements, some paintings try to express universal care and sympathy toward human beings. In the painting entitled “Pray Flying,” an airplane is covered with ropes, tied to plenty of colorful balloons in the sky floating in all directions.

    Dates: Until Oct. 13, closed Mondays

    Venue: Guan Shanyue Art Museum, 6026 Hongli Road, Futian District (福田区红荔路6026号关山月美术馆)

    Metro: Longhua or Longgang Line, Children’s Palace Station (少年宫站), Exit B