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Art for cool days

The sanfu days — China's dog days — are three 10-day stretches marking the year's hottest, most humid period, usually spanning July and August. Oil painter Dai Shihe has borrowed the term as the title of his ongoing Shanghai exhibition, not only because it features his 1997 oil work of the same name — a painting of a freshly sliced, glistening watermelon — but also to stir thoughts of the coming autumn. The show, now underway at Liu Haisu Art Museum, charts the career of Dai, a professor of Central Academy of Fine Arts, spanning several decades in which he has always sought innovative methods to make art cool and experimental. His paintings burst with saturated colors and energetic, almost explosive brushwork, delivering a dramatic punch. Rooted in everyday life, they offer portraits of people's state of mind and subtle emotional shifts. The exhibition runs through Aug 31.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays.1609 Yan'an Xi Lu, Changning district, Shanghai. 021-6270-1018.