UCCA director Philip Tinari says: "Every time I walked on the east side of the National Art Museum of China, I think of that exhibition September of 1979, which marked the beginning of China's contemporary art."

Wang was an actor and scriptwriter with a State-owned art troupe in Beijing until he started sculpting at age 30.

He studied painting with a friend but never cultivated a knack for it.

One day, he picked up a piece of wood on his way home and whittled it. He became obsessed.

"I felt proud and excited when I transformed a plain piece of wood into the shape I wanted," he says. "Surprisingly, my artist friends praised those works."

Wang often waits for years to let a tree grow into its distinct shape before sculpting it. His years of working with the medium have taught him how wood splinters. He believes his works are compromises between his aesthetic vision and the wood's inherent form.

"I feel like I'm conversing with each chunk," he explains.

"It gives me ideas. Trees are like humans. They have flesh and bone, tender parts, hard parts, solid parts, frail parts. You can't go against nature. You must follow it."

He moved to France to learn about great sculptors like Rodin, Maillol and Brancusi and compare his works with theirs.

"I learned my pieces are different from theirs," Wang says. "I didn't create with Chinese elements or according to Western trends."

His life in France is simple, he says.

Wang's studio is his garden.

"I am still rebellious and oppose the contemporary art scene's trends," he says. "I made personal artworks in the beginning. I'm glad I'm still doing it."

If you go

Until Jan 5. Central gallery of the UCCA in the 798 Art Zone, 4 Jiuxianqiaolu, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-5780-0200.