Artist Wang Yizhou is showing examples of his installations (top) and ink paintings (above) in the city.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The artist further intends to change people's way of looking at the world and stimulate their imaginations by bringing modern industrial materials and the handcrafted rice paper together in his works, says Huang Du, a Beijing-based art critic and curator.

The inverted "mountains" can also appear like clouds floating in the sky or boats sailing along a river or even jellyfish in the sea depending on the audience's imagination.

"The installation makes people feel they are part of it, the same way as a mountain-and-water painting transports its viewer to the landscape it portrays," Huang Du says.

Wang's unconventional use of the rice paper highlights its refined texture that is overlooked by many when used in calligraphy or traditional painting. It is an example of his experimental mind. The paper, seemingly light and fragile, however, creates a sense of weight and fullness, after being placed as part of three-dimensional objects.

Many Chinese artists today are attempting different ways to express the refinement and creativity of Asian aesthetics, Huang Du says.

The simplicity in Wang's method is similar to the presentation of Peking Opera in which performers rely on a few props and settings to interpret complicate plots.

But both also attest to modern tastes, the art critic says.

"Wang's artworks echo the call for respect of nature, which is central to Chinese philosophy, and also discuss the contradictions derived from industrial development that are emphasized by his use of Western experimental art," Huang Du says.

Contact the writer at linqi@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

10 am-6 pm, through March 12. Today Art Museum, 32 Baiziwan Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-5876-0600.