To greet the Chinese Year of the Tiger, which falls on Feb 1, the first installment of an online exhibition of painted sculptures featuring images of tiger, one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animal signs, was launched on social media platform WeChat on Jan 26.

Running through the Lunar New Year holiday, the 12-installment exhibition displays more than 400 painted sculptures singled out from about 1,300 entries, created by both veteran and emerging Chinese artists from across the country.

The Chinese zodiac animal signs (shengxiao in Chinese Pinyin) are a revolving cycle spanning 12 years, with each year represented by an animal and its reputed attributes. Among these animals are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig, in that order.

Tiger has long been a favorite subject for artistic creation as the Chinese zodiac animal sign is believed to represent such attributes as bravery, dignity, justice and loyalty.

"In my view, the participating artists have tried their best to bring to life the tiger in their head, with a wide variety of subject matters, materials and styles," Xu Jianguo, an art professor with the Tsinghua University and a key organizer of the exhibition, told the media.

The exhibition is designed "not only to pay homage to the time-honored shengxiao culture in China but also to send an artistic well-wishing to Chinese people living in different parts of the world," Xu added.

Sponsored by the Folk Art Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the event was organized by the center's Specialized Committee for Colored Painting and supported by art schools or departments from a couple of colleges and universities including the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing Industry University, Northeast China Normal University, and Shantou University.

To get a closer look at the showpieces, the reader may log onto the WeChat accounts caisuzhongguo and zhongguominxie1950.

(Source: chinadaily.com.cn)