The real deal

The group exhibition Contemporary American Realism features 100 oil portraits, still lifes and landscapes from 51 contemporary American artists, providing Chinese audiences with a better understanding of all walks of American life.

"This is the first exhibition of contemporary American Realism ever held in China. Through this exhibition, Chinese audiences will observe contemporary American culture from a new angle, aside from typical cultural symbols such as McDonald's and KFC that are very familiar to Chinese people," says Wang Limei, director of Beijing World Art Museum.

The exhibition covers works from masters who struggled to preserve representational painting during the period dominated by abstract and conceptual art in the 20th century, to the middle generation - now in their 40s and 50s - who sought training and created schools; and to the younger generation in their 20s and 30s who are coming out of the new atelier movement.