Cao Zhen caozhen0806@126.com Sichuan Fine Arts Institute president Pang Maokun will lead his seven colleague painters to display their oil paintings at Guan Shanyue Art Museum. The other seven painters are Zhang Jie, Feng Bin, Weng Kaixuan, Luo Fahui, Liu Yu, Yang Shu and Zhang Lin. The eight painters were all educated at the affiliated high school of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in the late 1970s and then the institute in the early 1980s. With a history of 78 years, the institute is one of the four most prominent art academies in China and the only one in Southwest China. In 1980, leading realist painter Luo Zhongli at the institute created oil painting masterpiece “My Father,” a milestone of contemporary Chinese portrait painting thanks to Luo’s masterful portrait of an ordinary Chinese farmer. “Students in Sichuan Fine Arts Institute consistently focus on the ordinary lives of people in their creations,” said Yin Shuangxi, a professor of Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. “Their depictions of Chinese social life in paintings have helped them enjoy great prestige domestically and internationally.” Pang has lengthy experience researching Western oil paintings, but he has a signature style, so his oil paintings reflect the Western classical oil paintings’ aesthetic but with a unique modern and sometimes surreal and symbolic take. Zhang Jie’s paintings combine realism and expressionism through which visitors can admire typical Chongqing life scenes, such as mahjong-playing and ferry traffic. Zhang Lin’s realist portraits also depict ordinary people. Feng mainly studies Chinese ink paintings but he adds oil painting color techniques into his paintings on linen or bourette. His naked dancer paintings express urban people’s desire for love. Luo’s rose-themed paintings are surrealistic while Weng’s snow village paintings are poetic. Liu and Yang’s paintings are abstract color lines or splashes, full of a free and independent spirit. Opening: 3 p.m., Sept. 28 Exhibition: Sept. 28-Oct. 7 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: Line 3 or 4 to Children’s Palace Station (少年宫站), Exit B | 