When artists from across the Taiwan Straits meet with each other, they usually exchange ideas and feelings in the language of art.

Speak & Describe - the 2009 Cross-Straits Contemporary Art Show, the first of its kind, is running at the National Art Museum of China until Thursday in downtown Beijing.

A girl is attracted by an exhibt at Speak & Describe - the 2009 Cross-Straits Contemporary Art Show at the National Art Museum of China. [China Daily]

Jointly organized by art museums on either side of the Taiwan Straits, the grand exhibition presents (in three sections - "History and Memory," "Reality and Introspection," and "Inner Recollections and Extension") about 60 pieces/sets of art works, including ink and oil paintings, sculptures, installations, photography and video art, created by 58 artists.

The exhibition, that debuted in Taiwan from May 23 to June 28, is co-organized by the China Friendship Association of Cultural Circles, National Art Museum of China, Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and National Taiwan Fine Arts Foundation.

"It is a thought-provoking exhibition for me," says Li Hongjun, an art student who visited the exhibition last weekend.

"I have found contemporary artists from both sides share so much in common, such as the clever use of Chinese philosophical ideas, cultural symbols and motifs."

For instance, the style of veteran Sichuan artist Luo Zhongli has evolved from super realism to a unique mix of Chinese folk art such as paper-cutting and woodblock print, tinged with the flavor of fauvism.

Meanwhile, Taiwan artist Liao Shiou-ping has created a very modernist bright-colored five-joint screen - what he calls "Gate of Festivity," borrowing symbols from local temple and village life.

Participating painter Liu Manwen, a teacher with Harbin Normal University described her exhibition experience as "very rewarding."

"I have learned a lot from my Taiwan friends. Their approach to contemporary art is closely related to their living experience and personal emotion, which is similar to my take," she says.

Mainland viewers are no stranger to art works from Taiwan, says Fan Di 'an, dean of the National Art Museum of China.

Since the late 1990s, artists from Taiwan have been holding sporadic solo and group shows in both galleries and art museums in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, according to Fan.

A dozen prominent Taiwan art galleries, including the Lin & Keng Gallery Beijing, Guang Xiang Art Gallery, and Soka Art Center; have established their branches in cities like Beijing and Shanghai since late 2000.

And art works from Taiwan are becoming familiar to mainland collectors in galleries and art expos such as Art Beijing, and SHcontemporary.

Chang Yuteng, honorary deputy chairman of the Taiwan Art Foundation, a key organizer, believes the exhibition "marks the beginning of a new era in contemporary art exchanges across the Straits," Chang says.

"In the future, we may organize more art exhibitions with different themes and various academic exchanges on a regular basis between art museums from across the Straits."

(China Daily August 12, 2009)