Privately owned art museum opens in Wuxi

The Phoenix Art Palace, the largest privately owned art museum in Jiangsu province, opened in Wuxi on July 1.

The inaugural exhibition features more than 130 short-listed oil paintings by artists participating in the Jiangsu provincial biannual oil art exhibition.

The museum - the first of its kind in China and located on a peninsula on Taihu Lake - has a floor space of more than 2,000 square meters and specializes in collecting, researching and promoting oil paintings by contemporary Chinese artists.

Construction of art museums across the country has surged over the last five years, with more than 300 museums being built, mostly with public funds, art market researcher Zhao Li said.

The emergence of privately owned art museums may also play a role in the growing popularity of oil art, veteran oil artist Jin Shangyi said.