what's on

Youth art

An exhibition of paintings by 100 artists, aged 30 to 45, is being held at the China National Academy of Painting through Saturday. The show caps a series of exhibitions the academy has staged this year to mark the centenary of the Communist Party of China. On show are oil and ink-wash paintings encompassing the three classical Chinese art genres of landscape, flowers-and-birds, and figures. Zhang Jiangzhou, a permanent artist and member of the Assembly of Fellows of the China National Academy of Painting, says the works on show reflect the efforts a younger generation of artists have made to be more innovative in presenting the changing landscapes of their country and the vibrancy of the lives of the people.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. Xisanhuan Bei Lu, Haidian district, Beijing. 010-6841-2606.

Humans and universe

Cosmoscapes: Ink Paintings by Tai Xiangzhou, an ongoing show at Nanchizi Museum in Beijing, is a special exhibition for artist Tai Xiangzhou, who mainly works with ink and paper. His paintings, on show through Aug 31, are placed in an elegant, scholarly environment built in the style resembling a classical Chinese garden and residence compound in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. Tai's paintings present an influence by the art and philosophy of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), resonating with the refined design and an intellectual touch of the Suzhou garden museum from that era. His creative practice with ink is deeply rooted in a cultural atmosphere of his family, an accumulation of classical calligraphy and literature, as well as his studies of the mounting and conservation of classical Chinese paintings. The exhibition displays 14 sets of hand scrolls, screen paintings and leaf albums to show his artistic evolution. It is a parallel display, under the same title, to another ongoing exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. Tai's paintings reflect a spirit embodied in Chinese cultural traditions, obeyed by generations of artists, to understand and explain dao, or the ultimate rules between heaven and Earth and of the whole universe.

10:30 am-5:30 pm, closed on Mondays. 66 Nanchizi Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-6528-1891.

Illusory land

In Cao Xueqin's masterpiece, The Dream of the Red Chamber, a chapter that narrates Jia Baoyu dreaming about the confines of a great void is of importance as it includes several hints that foreshadow later developments. The depictions of the great void inspired Argentine artist Leandro Erlich when preparing for his solo exhibition in China, The Confines of the Great Void. The exhibition attracted more than 160,000 visitors in 45 days when staged at the art museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2019. Now it has moved to the Sea World Culture and Art Center in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, and will run through Nov 7. Erlich provides different perspectives on illusions and reality. The artist is adept at creating daily scenes in his work, and makes the audience rethink about what is real and what is false.

10 am-7 pm, Monday to Friday, 10 am-9 pm, on Saturdays and Sundays. 1187 Wanghai Road, Shekou, Nanshan, Shenzhen, Guangdong province. 0755-2667-1187.

Invitation to nature

Classical gardens in China are a combination of nature and artificial crafts to reflect people's outlook on the relationship between humans and the universe. When designing gardens, owners and designers often adopted a rule called jie jing, meaning to smartly incorporate landscapes from outside, such as mountains from afar, into the scenes of one's own residence gardens to enrich visits. The spirit of the Chinese garden is behind an exhibition, Inviting the Moon and Wind, which shows dozens of paintings by Qiu Ting, an ink-water artist and professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Curated by Wu Hongliang, director of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, the exhibition runs through Oct 7 and dwells on Qiu's appreciation of such classical gardens. He is inspired by how ancient designers dealt with space, time and connections between people and nature when building the gardens.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays.204 Dongbei Jie, Suzhou, Jiangsu province. 0512-6757-5666.