"Strait Intimacy" - an art exhibition of Wang Jiliang, a famous contemporary Chinese painter, held its opening ceremony at the Fuzhou Painting Institute on August 7 as part of a three-day art exhibition.

It is the first time Fujian has held a large scale art exhibition with the Taiwan Strait as the background.

The exhibition will feature over 100 ocean and mountain works by Wang Jiliang and is open to citizens for free. The magnificent ocean works painted by Wang show the intimacy between Taiwan and the mainland.

Wang Jiliang is an academician of the Chinese Artists Association and a national level artist, with works kept in the Great Hall of the People, the Chinese Historical Museum, the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, and museums in Singapore and the US.

Wang's passion for the ocean provides a large basis for his work. He has gone to the Fujian coastal area to sketch several times. After travelling to the Taiwan Strait, he felt the ocean's spirit and the inseparable relation between Taiwan and mainland people, painting many ocean-inspired works as a result.

The artist hopes to create intimacy across the strait through his paintings, increase cross-strait exchange and reach a peaceful reunification of Taiwan and the mainland through the spread of culture.

(China Daily August 11, 2009)