Zhou Jianpeng delivers a speech at the exhibition on July 6 in Shanghai. Photo: Courtesy of Zhou Jianpeng

Pursuit of the Silk Road exhibition. Photo: Courtesy of Zhou Jianpeng

Artist Zhou Jianpeng's exhibition Pursuit of the Silk Road opened at the Han Tianheng Art Museum in Shanghai on Saturday. Shanghai is the fourth stop on the exhibition's national art tour.

The exhibition features 160 original paintings, landscape sketches and manuscripts about the Silk Road. The 25-meter-long Five Stars Rise in the East scroll, which took five years to complete, also made its debut at the exhibition, which runs through July 28.

Originally from Yongjia county in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, Zhou taught at Xinjiang Normal University's art department. He earned his doctoral degree in art at Tsinghua University and later began pursuing post-doctoral studies at Peking University's art institute.

During his time at these universities, Zhou studied the art of the Central Asia region and Chinese and Western art history. These experiences help shaped the landscape painter into who he is today. Zhou has published five painting collections, and his artwork has been put on display at various exhibitions around the world.

Over the past more than a decade, Zhou has explored almost every corner of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, trying to find inspiration for his landscape paintings. In his own words, "I've been painting the Silk Road for 12 years, this has always been the overall theme of my work."