Yang Di/Shanghai Daily news

The art scene in Changning District is very much alive.
Anyone who spends an afternoon strolling around the district, will come across galleries of all shapes and sizes from the elegant Haisu Gallery in the national Liu Haisu Art Museum to the small and intensely personal places such as the Avant-Garde Gallery along the district's Xianxia Road.
These galleries are setting artistic trends in the city.
They are aimed at the growing number of Chinese who have had access to art and understand its value as well as expatriates who have begun to learn and understand more about the country.
Insiders said the local art market is embracing a "golden time" and will continue to grow in the future.
Successful galleries in the district possess adequate working capital and have people with the ability to accurately assess prices as well as good contractual working relationships with a number of artists.
No matter how big or small, old or new, these art spaces are worth investigating on a leisurely day.
Gallery De Author

From the surreal to the abstract, if it is art, it can be found on the walls of Gallery De Author.
Cai Pengcheng, 58, has been an avid collector of oil paintings by eminent Chinese artists for more than eight years. He opened Gallery De Author at the end of last year, selling acclaimed works to local and expat collectors.
His gallery features around 200 famous painters in oil, including Liu Xiaodong, Chen Junde, Luo Zhongli and Zhang Dongfeng. The price for each painting ranges from 10,000 yuan (US$1,204) to 1 million yuan.
Cai said his gallery is also playing an important role as an enthusiastic intermediary in promoting the outstanding Chinese artworks to all art lovers.

Opening hours: 10am-7pm, Tuesday to Sunday
Address: Second floor, 650 Xianxia Road
Tel: 6261-4631
Haisu Gallery

Located in a quiet corner on the second floor of Liu Haisu Art Museum, Haisu Gallery was established two years ago with the aim to identify, support and constantly promote creative artists.
The elegant gallery features a wide range of styles, from abstract to realist, oil to watercolor. It has selected and established long-term working relationships with about 20 innovative and significant artists, such as Xiao Haichun, a 61-year-old Jiangsu native famous for Chinese ink paintings, and oil painter Chen Junjie.
The price for each painting ranges from 2,000 yuan (US$240) to 20,000 yuan. Zhou Weiping, director of the development department of the art museum, said the paintings and sculptures exhibited are not only for collectors, but for ordinary people as well.
In the past two years, the gallery has organized many solo exhibitions of well-known artists' works and also kept an eye out for up-and-coming talent.
"We are dedicated to spot the 'stars of tomorrow,"' said Zhou. In September, 20-something Qin A'mei, who has never received any formal art training, will have a solo exhibition in the gallery, displaying 38 of her oil paintings.
Zhou said Liu Haisu Art Museum is taking an active role in promoting Chinese art and facilitating an exchange of art culture between China and other countries.
He revealed one important exhibition in December will present Shanghai residents with about 40 precious tapestries created some 300 years ago from the Bellini Museum of Italy.
The museum not only holds exhibitions but also gives priority to the popularization of art among the general public.

Opening hours: 9am-10pm, Tuesday to Sunday
Address: Second Floor, 1660 Hongqiao RoadTel: 6270-1018 ext 31
Avant-Garde Gallery

Chen Fan established the 180-square-meter Avant-Garde Gallery along Xianxia Road in 2001. Born in the early 1960s, Chen is a well-established artist.
His two oil paintings highlighting material girls and their devil-may-care attitude toward life delight passers-by outside the gallery.
As a contemporary art gallery, Avant-Garde is specialized in Chinese contemporary art and represents more than 30 young oil painters, especially those born in the 1960s and 1970s, including Chen Yufei and Zhao Xiaojia.
"The avant-garde pieces in my gallery are welcomed by more foreigners living or traveling in Shanghai than local people," said Chen, adding that expatriates seldom purchase a painting that costs more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,204).
The price for each painting ranges from 2,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan in his gallery.

Opening hours: 11:30am-6pm, Tuesday to Sunday
Address: 1396 Xianxia Road
Tel: 6290-4725
Donghaitang Gallery

The Donghaitang curator Xu Longsen was one of the first gallery owners in Shanghai in the early 1990s. Donghaitang was founded nine years ago, which is fairly long history for a local gallery.
Targeting an upscale clientele, the gallery showcases the acclaimed oil paintings by the first generation of artists who received both Chinese traditional education and Western art training.
Those big names include Xu Beihong (1895-1953), Liu Haisu (1896-1992), and Lin Fengmian (1900-1991).
The gallery will be moved to Luwan District next month.

Opening hours: 9am-5pm, everyday
Address: 11 Hongqiao Road
Tel: 6208-8725 (Reservation is required in advance.)