China's rapid economic development also has an unsettling side, according to painter Yu Qiping. His paintings depict a poetic dreamland disturbed by modern culture. He merges a Utopian images, personal memories and metaphysics in his subtle brush strokes.

For instance, a 2007 painting entitled No Word shows a muttering monk walking under the dark clouds; the background is two parallel red walls extending to the horizon, which he says display his loneliness and sorrow.

People can feel in Yu's artistic language the twists and turns of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) and the reform and opening-up in the 1980s; the influence of "consumptionism" in the 1990s; and his experience living abroad in Japan.

Born in Nanjing in 1957, Yu graduated from Nanjing Art College. He then worked at the Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House. He moved to Japan in 1990 to pursue an art career.

Lin Qi

Address: Gong Gallery, 798 Art Zone, 6 Fangyuan Xi Lu, Chaoyang district 芳園西路6號(hào)麗都公園內(nèi)孔畫廊

Open: 10 am-6:30 pm, Aug 23-Sept 7

Tel: 8457-4060

Other exhibits now running at the 798 Art Zone:

The Declare of Only-Child exhibit looks at a young generation of Chinese artists and their influence on the future of Chinese art.

Address: New Age Gallery, D09 District, Zhong'er Jie, 798 Art District, 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu 朝陽區(qū)酒仙橋路4號(hào)798中二街D09區(qū)新時(shí)代畫廊

Open: 11 am-6:30 pm, daily except Monday, until Aug 31

Tel: 8459-9282

The great concern of Chinese artists for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake shows the involvement of today's artists in the country's social life. The Earthquake expresses artists' responses to the disaster. It calls for the public's continuing attention and support to the earthquake-stricken area in the coming reconstruction.

Address: Art Channel, Cao Chang Di, No 249-3, East End Art Zone B, Chaoyang district 朝陽區(qū)草場(chǎng)地村249-3號(hào),藝術(shù)東區(qū)B區(qū)

Open: 11 am-6 pm, until Sept 21

Tel: 6433-5080, 135-2171-4691

The Mountain Flowers in Full Bloom exhibit can be regarded as a response to the visual culture and art, as well as the revolutionary realism and romanticism, in the era of Mao Zedong.

Address: First Sound Gallery, 798 Art District, 2 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang district 朝陽區(qū)酒仙橋路2號(hào)798藝術(shù)區(qū)先聲畫廊

Open: 10 am-7 pm, until Sept 12

Tel: 6431-2501, 138-1113-3120