One piece from Chen's  Red and Black series which was showcased at a landmark department store in Milan, Italy, in January. [Photo provided to China Daily]

There was nothing subtle about the art on display. This was not a vase of flowers in a sunlit room, nor green fields with butterflies, but a dragon with flames, a Peking-Opera-costumed performer, a woman in the style of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) carrying pigment and a paint brush, and a modern girl with a Western suit floating in the air with clouds and black dogs galloping by her side...

You get the picture. Chen's artworks combine elements of both the East and the West, ancient and the present, drawing attention from passers-by with a clear sense of oriental elegance tinted with a light, but also daring, Western expressiveness. The young Chinese artist's fresh designs lit up the place and cut a brimming dash of youth to the age-old Italian store.