Hoof it to Life Hub for equine art

Wu Jie's Eight Horses is like a merry-go-round.

Exhibition held for Year of the Horse in Nanjing

Liaoning museum showcases horse paintings

Along with the giant wooden horse are four small horse sculptures, which are made of glass beads rubbed with special techniques, created by glass artist Xue Lyu. With different colors of LED lights installed inside, the horse sculptures shine brightly at night.

Wang Xieda, a Shanghai sculptor, used rattan to weave an abstract image of a horse, under the inspiration of the Chinese character for "horse". It provokes viewers to ponder Chinese folk art and traditional culture.

But the most outstanding art piece is a giant paper-cut at the center of the mall called Heavenly Horses.

Wang Lihua, a renowned Chinese-born artist now living in the United States, studied various gestures and movements of horses in paintings and movies. The artist formed her own vision of horses and presented them with countless images of horses in her paper-cut.

"Visitors will be attracted by the complicated lines at first glance," Wang says. "When they walk closer and look at it carefully, they can detect many different horses."

The paper-cut was not pasted on the wall. Instead, it was thick and set about 5 centimeters away from the wall, making it look like a 3-D work.

Another installation, called Eight Horses, is full of childish fun. The creator, Wu Jie, a young designer from Shanghai, made the horses like a merry-go-round. And each horse takes the form of a rocking horse, a popular toy for children.

The horses are decorated with beautiful patterns embroidered by women from the Qiang ethnic group in Sichuan province whose main settlements were devastated by the magnitude-8.0 Wenchuan earthquake in 2008.

IF YOU GO

Life Hub, until April 8. 3611 Zhangyang Lu (Road), Pudong New Area, Shanghai. 021-2023-3000.