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Cheng Shifa Art Museum
Cheng Shifa Art Museum is located on Hongqiao Road in Shanghai’s Changning District, in the well-known Gubei area. The museum is operated by the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy, but it was named in honor of the celebrated Shanghai School artist Cheng Shifa. That background also makes it clear what the museum centers on: Chinese painting is the core of its collection and exhibitions. The building itself is understated yet grand, not unlike the Liu Haisu Art Museum. Both in a

Cathy Shen
1 day ago4 min read


Van Gogh Starry Sky Art Museum
Over the past six months or so, I have visited many art museums, but I often find myself thinking about one question: how can the artworks displayed in glass cases and picture frames form a real connection with viewers? That connection is not about teaching viewers the materials or techniques of a painting, nor even about introducing them to artistic schools or styles. Rather, it is about helping them truly understand and feel the emotions and thoughts an artist experienced w

Cathy Shen
Jun 123 min read


Shanghai Rodin Art Center
The Shanghai Rodin Art Center is located at No. 1929, Expo Avenue, Pudong New Area, Shanghai. It is an art institution converted from the former French Pavilion of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and is currently presenting the major exhibition “Rodin: The Inheritance and Evolution of Modern Sculpture.” The center’s main building covers more than 8,000 square meters, with 4,200 square meters of exhibition space. Its exterior features a structure that appears to float above the g

Cathy Shen
Jun 62 min read


Shanghai Special Art Exhibition Highlights (June 2026)
Hearts in Harmony: Qiu Ruimin & Wu Huiming Art Exhibition (Contemporary Painting) Dates: 2026.05.20 ~ 2026.07.19 Venue: Shanghai Art Museum (China Art Palace) Youth Palace Art Exhibition (Contemporary Art) Dates: 2026.06.01 ~ 2026.09.20 Venue: Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai Geometry · Fog (Contemporary Art) Dates: 2026.05.22 ~ 2026.06.21 Venue: Fosun Foundation Shanghai Wang Chuan: Four Decades of Abstraction (Contemporary Painting) Dates: 2026.05.30 ~ 2026.08.30 Venue: Long

Cathy Shen
Jun 12 min read


Fotografiska Shanghai
Fotografiska Shanghai is a chain art institution dedicated to photography and visual art exhibitions, along with related merchandise. Since their official website and social media do a relatively thorough job of promotion and marketing, I won't repeat that here. You can refer to https://shanghai.fotografiska.com/en, where you'll also find detailed introductions to the current exhibitions. When I visited today, perhaps because it was a weekend, the art center was quite crowded

Cathy Shen
May 302 min read


Shanghai chi K11 Art Museum
The Shanghai chi K11 Art Museum is located on level B3 of the K11 Art Mall at 300 Middle Huaihai Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai. It was established in 2013, with a total area of approximately 3,000 square meters. When I visited today, the museum had only one open exhibition: "Golden Glimpses of Dunhuang — An Exhibition of Kirikane Art." The exhibition features kirikane artworks by Dou Wei, a researcher at the Dunhuang Academy and an artist. What is kirikane art? It was a te

Cathy Shen
May 232 min read


Liu Haisu Art Museum
The Liu Haisu Art Museum is located at 1609 West Yan'an Road, Changning District, Shanghai, with a total floor area of 12,540 square meters. According to the official introduction, the museum's collection is primarily based on artworks donated by Liu Haisu himself, comprising 913 pieces — including historical calligraphy and paintings by masters of various dynasties that Liu collected throughout his lifetime, as well as his own oil paintings, traditional Chinese paintings, an

Cathy Shen
May 164 min read


When Picasso Met Africa: An Artistic "Collision" Across Continents
Not long ago, I paid a visit to the Picasso Art Center in Shanghai. The exhibition had a rather poetic title, Back to the Origin: Picasso and Africa, a showcase of Sino-African art and cultural exchange. To be honest, walking in, I was skeptical: Picasso, a Spaniard... what "origin" could he possibly share with Africa? The exhibition promptly slapped me across the face with the answer. Zimbabwean woodcarvings, stone sculptures, and oil paintings on canvas stood side by side w

Cathy Shen
May 108 min read


Shanghai Picasso Art Center
Today, I had originally planned to visit the Shanghai Museum. But when I arrived at the entrance, I discovered that starting May 6th, the museum had closed for renovations and wouldn't reopen until early July. So I pulled up the Amap app on my phone and started searching for nearby art galleries worth exploring. That's when the "Shanghai Picasso Art Center" caught my eye. It's a century-old Western-style townhouse nestled in the bustling heart of Shanghai. I noticed from the

Cathy Shen
May 102 min read


Shanghai Special Art Exhibition Highlights (May 2026)
Parallel FLATFORM: Light & Shadow Works Concert (Video Art) Duration: 2026.05.01 – 2026.06.28 Venue: Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (PSA), 1st Floor Splendor of 56 — Exhibition of Ethnic Art Jewelry Duration: 2026.04.25 – 2026.05.24 Venue: Shanghai Art Museum (China Art Palace), 0m Level, Space E The 6th China Painting Exhibition (Chinese Ink Painting) Duration: 2026.04.25 – 2026.05.31 Venue: Shanghai Art Museum (China Art Palace), 5m Level, Galleries 25, 26 & 27 Negativ

Cathy Shen
May 42 min read


Shanghai 3723 Art Museum
The Shanghai Pudong New District 3723 Art Museum is a privately run non-enterprise institution established on June 21, 2023. Its registered address is located on the 2nd floor of 66 Yincheng Road, Pudong New District, Shanghai. Its legal representative is Teng Haiming, and its scope of business includes art collection, preservation, research, exhibition, and display, as well as public art outreach and cultural exchange activities. The above is the official venue introduction.

Cathy Shen
May 22 min read


Shanghai Fosun Arts Center
The Shanghai Fosun Arts Center is a non-profit arts institution founded by Fosun Group and the Fosun Foundation in 2016, located at 600 Zhongshan East 2nd Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai. The building was co-designed by Foster + Partners and Heatherwick Studio, its three floors of golden rotating fringe curtains forming a distinctive facade that has earned it the nickname "the dancing house." The Fosun Arts Center is currently hosting "A Star That Never Changes—MOLLY's 20th

Cathy Shen
Apr 253 min read


Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art
The Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art was founded in 2003 by the Hongkou District Bureau of Culture and Tourism (formerly the Hongkou District Bureau of Culture). It is the first public museum on the Chinese mainland dedicated to contemporary art and the first professionally run modern art museum established on a government platform in China. Located at No. 27 Duolun Road, Hongkou District, the museum was planned and built with a modern, multi-functional vision. As a non-p

Cathy Shen
Apr 182 min read


Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum
Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum is a non-profit art museum located on the 6th floor of 27 Zhongshan East First Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai. The Bund venue opened on September 30, 2018, within the historic Jardine Matheson Building, a protected heritage structure. It belongs to the Jiushi Art Museum cluster, which also includes Jiushi Art Space at Bund 18 and Jiushi Art Salon at 230 Beijing East Road. On 31 March 2026, the new wing of Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum officially open

Cathy Shen
Apr 123 min read


Nanjing Golden Eagle Art Museum
The Nanjing Golden Eagle Art Museum is located on the 52nd floor of Tower A, Golden Eagle World, Hexi, Nanjing. Founded in 2020, this museum keeps such a low profile that finding the direct elevator to the entrance requires some effort. During today's visit, a small solo exhibition was on display: "Rehearsal in the Mist"—a solo art exhibition by Chen Wei . According to public information, this contemporary artist, who focuses on photography, installation, and video art, typic

Cathy Shen
Apr 42 min read


Rockbund Art Museum
The Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum is a contemporary art museum located in the Waitanyuan (Bund Source) area, at the confluence of the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek. It is housed in the Royal Asiatic Society Building, constructed in 1932 in the Art Deco style — a historically protected landmark that was once one of China's earliest natural history museums. As mentioned in a previous blog post, the Waitanyuan area is surrounded by a cluster of historic foreign-built architectur

Cathy Shen
Mar 283 min read


Glass or Liuli: One Character Apart, A Millennium of Ambiguity
Last weekend, I had planned to visit the Aurora Art Museum, only to observe upon arrival that no exhibitions were on. Glancing across the street, I noticed the Aurora Museum was open, with several permanent collections covering ancient Chinese ceramics, jade, porcelain, and Buddhist sculptures. Since I was already there, I bought a ticket and wandered in. In the jade research gallery, one display case stopped me in my tracks. It held an array of both natural and man-made ston

Cathy Shen
Mar 226 min read


Aurora Museum, Shanghai
I had originally planned to visit the Aurora Art Museum today, only to find upon arrival that there were no exhibitions on. Across the street, however, the Aurora Museum was running several permanent exhibitions covering ancient Chinese ceramic sculpture, jade, porcelain, and Buddhist statuary. As it happened, I had visited a few galleries at the Shanghai Museum East Bund just the previous week—covering much the same ground—so it seemed intriguing to see how this institution,

Cathy Shen
Mar 222 min read


Jadeite is "jewelry," and Hetian Jade is "culture"?
Have you ever felt puzzled while wandering through a museum? The jade artifacts in the display cases—warm, lustrous, and archaic in form—look nothing like the vivid, dripping-green jadeite bracelets in the jewelry shops outside, yet both are called "jade" ( yù ). Were the jade pendants worn at the waist by ancient scholars truly the same thing as the jadeite bracelet on your grandmother's wrist today? The answer is no. The question sounds simple, but behind it lies thousands

Cathy Shen
Mar 215 min read


Same Clay, Two Worlds: The Past and Present of Pottery and Porcelain
On the third floor of the Shanghai Museum's East Building, there is an exhibition hall worth a special visit—the Ancient Chinese Ceramics Gallery. The exhibition unfolds along a timeline, from the first lump of clay shaped by prehistoric hands to the gossamer-thin glazed wares crafted by Qing Dynasty artisans. Each of these objects encapsulates thousands of years of civilizational warmth. After walking through the gallery, many visitors find a quiet question forming in their

Cathy Shen
Mar 197 min read

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