What's on

Nostalgic brushwork

Veteran oil painter Dai Ze's solo exhibition in Chongqing is both payback and a gift to the municipality where he was brought up. The retired 101-year-old professor, who once taught at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, grew up in this scenic, dynamic city along the Yangtze River, where he went to art college to study under prominent artists like Xu Beihong, his main mentor, Lyv Sibai and Fu Baoshi. His paintings from the time capture the landscapes and lives of Chongqing and neighboring places like Chengdu, Sichuan province. They have now been returned to their birthplace to be shown at Dai's exhibition at the Chongqing Art Museum, which runs until Oct 15. Titled All Things That Thrive On, the show serves up a nostalgic mood, taking visitors back to the olden days of Chongqing and returning them to its vibrant life these days. It also demonstrates the artist's care for all living things through his still-life depictions, and is a tribute to his wholehearted commitment to art across the centuries.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. 1 Linjiang Lu, Yuzhong district, Chongqing. 023-6325-0993.

Zen simplicity

The audiences for Cao Jigang's works normally describe what they are looking at as "landscape paintings" although the artist borrows as few techniques and elements from classical Chinese landscape painting as possible, to deliver a minimalist, indifferent atmosphere. A rejection of details and unsaturated colors — usually varying degrees of neutral gray are used as the undertone — gives his paintings a lack of emotion and a sense of loneliness, like that of a wild, barren field. "How to remove more detail from the composition is, at the moment, the priority in my work, how to depict less and less," Cao says. The mystic desolation he presents, as well as the Zen-style void and the touch of poetic rhythm that results from the juxtaposition of black, white and gray, suggest a dialogue between Cao and the ancient masters of the ink tradition like Ni Zan, during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), and Dong Qichang, during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The artist's current exhibition in Shanghai, titled Skypath, displays his minimalist attempts from recent years, and adds the Western technique of tempera painting to his work in pursuit of a state between the past and present, the East and the West. The exhibition at the Bluerider Art gallery runs until Nov 19.

10 am-7 pm, closed on Mondays. 133 Sichuan Zhonglu, Huangpu district, Shanghai.

Belt and Road

A national tour of art themed around the Belt and Road Initiative is underway, making its first stop at the galleries of the China National Academy of Painting in Beijing. On show are works of Chinese painting and calligraphy, as well as oil paintings and sculptures by artists from home and abroad. The China National Academy of Painting kicked off a project in 2014 inviting artists from the countries and regions involved in the BRI to create works of art. A selection of the submissions are on show, along with commissioned works from well-established calligraphers. The exhibition will tour Anhui province and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region later this year.

9-11:30 am, 1:30-4:30 pm, daily. 54 Xisanhuan Beilu, Haidian district, Beijing. 010-6841-2606.