Outstanding in his field

Until Aug 27 at the Shanghai Jiushi International Art Center, Visionary: The Works of Xu Jiang presents some of the artist's best sunflower paintings.

For Xu, sunflowers are full of symbolism.

"They are like people, especially the Chinese people," Xu says. "They are strong, fervent and tough."

In his painted works, sunflowers rarely appear individually and in isolation; instead, he has invariably restored sunflowers to the environment in which the plants grow, usually vast stretches of fields.