DURING the weeklong May Day holiday, the city's major museums and galleries will be featuring a plethora of art exhibits for Shenzhen residents to enjoy.

Until May 8, the Shenzhen Art Museum will feature a special exhibit entitled Optical Special Zone: 2004 Shenzhen Young Artists' Experimental Art Show, which focuses on Shenzhen's popular art trends.

It features more than 50 works in oil painting, installation art and multi-media art by 12 local artists including Ma Chu, Deng Rongbin, Ya Niu, Yang Yong and Jiang Zhi.

Celebrated and historical Chinese art can be seen at the Shenzhen Museum where a one-month calligraphy and painting exhibit with 120 works by prominent figures from the Republic of China (1912-1949) such as Yuan Shikai, Li Yuanhong, Feng Guozhang, Li Zongren, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao is held until May 21.

The exhibit is the first of its kind in China and all the works were provided by the Beijing Art Museum.

At the Shenzhen Fine Arts Institute there's a one-man wash painting exhibit with 40 selected works by Macao-based painter Wang Jian'er. The exhibit will end May 10.

Born in Shanghai in 1944, Wang has practiced splashed-ink landscape painting for more than 20 years since he was a graduate student of the renowned Chinese landscape painter Lu Yanshao in the China Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1970s.

Wang's works feature a peculiar combination of both traditional Chinese and Western landscape paintings, which produce a strong and thrilling impact for viewers.

Until May 16, the Guan Shanyue Art Museum will present an art feast with 53 oil paintings, prints and water colors which have been collected by the museum since its establishment in 1997.

If Scandanavian design appeals to you, the He Xiangning Art Gallery is featuring the 125th Anniversary Exhibition of Finnish Design. The exhibit, co-sponsored with the Finnish Design Forum, showcases classic works from the 1950s, including Kaj Franck's blue vessels and tableware and Sara Hopea's foldable glassware.

The exhibition, which ends May 12, has been critically acclaimed throughout the world and its appearance in Shenzhen marks its debut in China.

 
Editor: Wings