[Photo/China Daily]

He also exhibited at the second exhibition of Xun-Xun held last April. His current show of oil paintings present a vibrant color palette, but dwell on the less glamorous side of urban life.

"Metro cities surround its residents with neon lights, traffic, building blocks and display screens that rotate advertisements all day long," he says of his inspiration for the series.

"Are people as delighted by these visually enticing objects as they seem to be?"

Some other artists on show attempt to reveal the dark side of the human mind, which they believe is universal despite cultural and aesthetic differences.

Wang Xiaoshuang, 31, who lives in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, focuses on city women and their emotions. The subjects of her paintings are charming, confident women, but she exposes their weaknesses by portraying their skin in a semi-translucent manner. Thereafter, she uncovers the loneliness and depression that many in her generation share.

The females in her paintings often look aloof when in a crowd, and Zhao the curator, says the works also reflect the weaknesses in interpersonal relations in today's world.

Other artists question if abnormal social phenomena would become the normal way of existence that people have to accept in order to avoid conflict.

Huang Kunxiong, 27, fills his paintings with rows of small squares that look quite like the windows on high-rises seen from afar. He presents a cold, robotic feeling and compares the work with the emotional distance between people. The artist from Sichuan province invites the audience to seek possibilities of changing the situation.

"The artists haven't found the answers to the questions raised in their works. Maybe, the process of involving viewers' thoughts is more important," says Zhao.

If you go

10:30 am-6:30 pm, through Sunday. Zhong Er Jie (street), 798 art district, 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang district. 010-5978-9282.