Showcasing emerging and veteran female artists

A large-scale exhibition featuring artworks by 15 female artists from different generations is currently running at the Shanghai Oil Painting & Sculpture Institute Art Museum.

Titled "Realm of flow and variation," nearly 90 art pieces ranging from canvases and ink-wash paintings to watercolors and multimedia provide a panoramic view of female artists in the Yangtze River Delta region.

"Visitors will get a glimpse of the artists' inner sides via their depictions of social landscapes, still-life paintings, metaphors and poetic abstracts," said Jiang Mei, curator of the exhibition.

A highlight of the exhibition is "Empty," a multimedia work created by Chen Yan who was inspired by the various finger and hand gestures presented in Kunqu Opera. For her, these finger and hand movements are symbolic with a ritual feel as they have been passed down from one generation to another.

"They are actually a record of time, a witness of existence," Chen said.

Artist Wang Yuhong also fuses traditional elements into her still-life works.

But different from the stereotyped, realistic depictions of porcelain and ancient books, Wang fuses something new into her arrangement – the idea of seven-piece puzzles. The realistic depiction is only one piece of the whole, giving a modern flavor to this centuries-old art genre.

Another impressive work is the canvas titled "Those Forgotten Time" by Zhang Chunxue.

"One year, I quit my job and went traveling," Zhang said. "I accidentally encountered a group of primitive plants along a lake in the countryside. These plants appeared so chaotic, so vital and yet a bit tragic, which really moved me."

That scene unwittingly echoed with something deep in her heart at that moment. Since then, she repeated those "wild plants" lingering in her mind and reflected them with her brushstrokes.

Exhibition info:

Dates: Through September 24 (closed on Mondays), 10am-5pm

Venue: Shanghai Oil Painting & Sculpture Institute Art Museum

Address: 111 Jinzhu Rd