Mountain of Heaven by Tai Xiangzhou in 2014 Photo: Courtesy of Tai Xiangzhou

A new exhibition featuring a series of ink paintings from artist Tai Xiangzhou is set to kick off at the Art Institute of Chicago on Thursday, offering overseas audiences a chance to have a peek into the Chinese artist's approach to bridging the gulf between ancient tradition and contemporary artistic practice. 

According to the exhibition's curator Wang Tao, Tai creates landscapes in the realist style of China's Song Dynasty (960-1279) and semiabstract expanses of rocks and clouds floating in extraterrestrial worlds, "combining elements of Chinese philosophy with modern astronomy."

Due to his training as a calligrapher, his studies in Chinese painting and philosophy, and time spent working as a paintings conservator at the Palace Museum in Beijing, he has gradually formed his own and unique approach to art. 

Among the 14 works on display from the artists are Primordial Space, 2011, Parallel Universes, 2017 and Mountain of Heaven, 2014.  

The exhibition is set to run until September 20.