At least nine major art exhibitions will take place in this city in China from November 3 to January 26.

The exhibitions are part of the 4th Shanghai International Arts Festival, which kicks off on Friday and includes performances and music concerts from home and abroad.

The most widely expected exhibition will be the 2002 Shanghai Biennale, the fourth in its history. The biennale will be held at the Shanghai Art Museum from November 22 to January 26.

The Shanghai Biennale was in the world spotlight in 2000 as a major art exhibition that opened the doors to modern art following the Chinese Modern Art Exhibition at the China National Art Museum in Beijing in 1989.

But the 2000 Shanghai Biennale soon became the center of dispute among the local art community because of the avant-garde stance it took and some ''satellite'' extremist performance art exhibitions that occurred.

"Despite the disputes, the significance and role of the Shanghai Biennale should not be questioned," said Li Xiangyang, the artistic director of this year's biennale, in an earlier interview.

"Following its example, biennales or triennials have been organized in cities such as Chengdu and Guangzhou. It is reported that even Beijing is planning to host a biennale," Li said.

According to Li, the 2002 Shanghai Biennale will focus on the less avant-garde theme of "Urban Construction" and consist of three parts.

The first part will be an exhibition of more than 300 works by about 80 internationally renowned artists and architects. The second part will be art and architectural designs by more than 100 art students from all over the world. The third part will be a retrospective exhibition of photographs of 100 examples of classical architecture in Shanghai over the past 100 years.

The international curatorial committee of the exhibition will include Fan Di'an, Wu Jiang, Li Xu, Alanna Hess and Hans Ulrich Obrish.

Another upcoming event will be the 6th Shanghai Art Fair, which has been organized in the city annually since 1997 and has been regarded as the best art fair for contemporary art in China.

This year's Shanghai Art Fair will be held at the Shanghai Mart, a major venue of commercial exhibitions and fairs in the city, from November 13 to 17.

Wang Anwei, an official from the art fair office, revealed that this year's event will attract more than 120 art galleries and companies from the United States, South Korea, France, Sweden, Russia, Japan, Brazil, the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

During the arts festival, the China Arts & Crafts Fair, which will include an exhibition of 1,000 precious teapots and the 7th National Exhibition of Ceramic and Porcelain Works, will be held at the Super Grand Mall in the city from November 6 to 10.

The Liu Haisu Art Gallery in Shanghai will host a solo exhibition of late Chinese ink painter Huang Zhou (1925-97) from November 3 to 22 and a group exhibition of contemporary Chinese landscape paintings from November 24 to December 5.

From December 1 to January 6, 2003, the Shanghai Museum will also hold an exhibition of 72 calligraphy and painting treasures from the collections of the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Shanghai Museum and the Liaoning Museum in Shenyang.

Also of note are three exhibitions of art work by foreign artists. They include the Shanghai in the Eyes of World Artists exhibition at the Shanghai Painting Institute from November 20 to 30, an exhibition of Australian aboriginal art at the Shanghai Library from November 16 to 30, and an exhibition of Russian oil paintings also at the Shanghai Library from November 15 to 24.

(China Daily October 29, 2002)