Opening Tuesday: China's traditional art forms have struggled to adapt amid pressures imposed by modernization and overpopulation. A new show at the University of Minnesota features recent paintings by Liu Xuguang and Li Shuan, contemporary painters affiliated with the Beijing Film Academy. Language plays a curious role in both artists' work. Liu Xuguang modifies and simplifies Chinese characters to create large abstractions that Westerners may read as gestural designs. In China, however, they pose a radical break with traditional calligraphic images incorporating poetry, landscape and philosophic meditations. Li Shuan's more colorful paintings often incorporate tiny figures as graceful elements in compositions whose complexity may suggest the bustle and ambition of contemporary China. Liu Xuguang is shown here in his studio. (Tue. through Oct. 8. Panel discussion with artists, 7 p.m., next Thurs., free. Opening reception 6-8:30 p.m. next Fri., free. Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Regis Center for Art, 405 21st Av. S., Mpls. 612-624-7530 or nash.umn.edu)
MARY ABBE
