'Life and Nature' under brushes of Chinese and Irish painters

A combination photo of Irish artist Niamh Cunningham's paintings, focusing on Guilin in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region (top row) and the Fenghuang ancient town in Central China's Hunan province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Exhibition Infinite Entities: Life and Nature is a dialogue between Irish artist Niamh Cunningham and Chinese oil painter Geng Xin, exploring the beauty of life and nature.

Through a variety of brushworks created using techniques in both Eastern and Western paintings, the artists have shown their delicate perception of different forms of life and the natural world.

The exhibition opened at the Dongyue Art Museum, in downtown Beijing, on Friday, and will run until April 9.

Putin's Office, a canvas-based oil painting by Geng Xin. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Shandong-born artist Geng Xin used Western painting techniques to create oil paintings on canvases, which have brought to life the sceneries he viewed on his travels to Russia.

From buildings in Moscow and St Petersburg to autumn and winter foliage dotting streets in the cities, Geng truly captured each scenario through his exquisite skills in creating art.

At the exhibition, Geng also showcases works of old sceneries of rural places in East China's Zhejiang, striking a nostalgic chord with the Chinese visitors familiar with those areas.

Watercolor flowers by Niamh Cunningham. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In Cunningham's works, the Irish artist applied Chinese watercolor traditions to create vivid artworks on traditional Chinese xuanzhi – otherwise known as rice paper. The bold and warm colors seemingly explode from the paper's surface in every piece, whether it be blooming flowers or natural landscapes.

Cunningham also used her medical background and added a scientific touch to her paintings, by portraying cellular landscapes and cellular divisions – observed via microscopes in laboratories.

A combination photo of Niamh Cunningham's paintings of cellular divisions. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Cunningham worked with photomicroscopy as a university student and was trained as a medical lab scientist. In the 1990s, she was a contributing editor for a radiology publication, Diagnostic Imaging Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong. Cunningham has since returned to look at medical imagery in recent months, with the help of a Tsinghua University stem cell researcher, Professor Na Jie.

Through the brushworks of cells, Cunningham hoped to look at the future of medical capabilities, including regenerative medicine – growing replacement tissue from stem cells – and ownership of genetic information.

If you go:

10 am – 5 pm, until April 9 (closed on Monday). Dong Yue Art Museum –99 Chaoyangmen Outer Street, Chaoyang district, Beijing.

Outside Moscow's Kremlin, by Geng Xin. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

An artwork depicting the Fuchun River in Zhejiang by Geng Xin. It's a place renowned for its natural beauty. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Winter scenery in St Petersburg by Chinese artist Geng Xin. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A watercolor piece by Irish artist Niamh Cunningham. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Geng Xin (left) and Niamh Cunningham (right) showcase a watercolor artwork the pair created together at the opening of exhibition Infinite Entities: Life and Nature, March 31, 2017. [Photo by Li Ping/chinadaily.com.cn]