The Art of Zhuànkè: the Feitian and the Dances of Dunhuang

PENG DAQING

The Art of Zhuànkè: the Feitian and the Dances of Dunhuang

edited by Yinghao Kou

presentation by Elisabetta Roncati

Opening: September 8th at 6:30 pm

On Tuesday 8 September MA-EC Gallery opens its exhibition season with an exhibition by the well-known Chinese artist Peng Daqing entitled The Art of Zhuànkè: the Feitian and the Dances of Dunhuang .

Peng Daqing chose Palazzo Durini because he was fascinated by the classical architecture marked by centuries of history, capable of evoking a suspension between different times and places. The rooms with their irregular and intimate layout, the worn and layered walls, the ancient and solemn vaults, bear the traces of time everywhere. This architectural material, sober and lived-in, seems to resonate with the distant Mogao Caves in Dunhuang: intimate and harmonious cave chambers, archaic and majestic vaults, murals traversed by a thousand years of wind and sand, which, though fragmented and marked by erosion, still retain an extraordinary spiritual strength and formal dignity.

As Yinghao Kou , curator of the exhibition, states, the exhibition draws its origins from the world of the Feitian, celestial figures, and the dances of Dunhuang, and uses the figurative seal as an artistic medium to reconstruct, in the small but intense space of the engraved stone, the visual vitality of these figures throughout the centuries.

Along the walls of the MA-EC Gallery, an imaginary mural inspired by Dunhuang unfolds, harmoniously integrating the figurative imprints of the seals dedicated to the Feitian. The celestial figures in flight, the sinuous movements of the dance, and the pictorial landscape thus merge into a single vision, where presence and suggestion, image and space, interpenetrate. In this dialogue between ancient and contemporary, between East and West, visitors are invited to enjoy an immersive experience that seems to ideally transport them to the Mogao Caves.

These caves in Dunhuang hold one of the finest testimonies of Chinese civilization. Their murals, renowned throughout the world, are distinguished by their technical excellence and a spiritual beauty of rare intensity. Among these, the Feitian and the scenes of music and dance constitute some of the most poetic and representative symbols of Eastern aesthetics.

Peng Daqing engraves the stone with the blade, transforming the lightness of the divine creatures, the rhythm of the dance and the flow of the clothes into lines, structures and voids. In this way, Yinghao Kou underlines, the aesthetics of Dunhuang and the tradition of zhuànkè ( engraving of the seals) they fit into the contemporary context, opening up for Chinese stone carving art an international path of expression deeply marked by an oriental sensibility.

The artist will be present at the inauguration.

All visitors attending the opening will receive a free gadget.

Peng Daqing is a renowned contemporary artist specializing in the art of zhuànkè (seal engraving). He currently lives in Shanghai. He is a member of the Chinese Collectors' Association, the Shanghai Yan Huang Cultural Studies Association, the Shanghai Calligraphers' Association, and a member of the board of the Shanghai Art Collectors and Experts' Association. He studied at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai Normal University. He trained in the art of zhuànkè (seal engraving) under Wu Yiren, a renowned contemporary master of painting, calligraphy, and engraving. For many years, Peng Daqing has been exploring the Chinese epigraphic tradition and the art of zhuànkè , focusing in particular on three main creative fields: portrait seals of illustrious figures, figurative seals of historical and cultural subjects, and engraving on Zisha terracotta. Thanks to a mature technique and a personal style, he has developed a coherent and structured contemporary language of seal engraving. Over the years, he has held numerous thematic solo exhibitions and has often been invited to participate in important national art exhibitions. He has also engraved portrait seals for political figures from various countries and for authoritative exponents of the Chinese and international cultural and artistic world. His artistic career and his most representative works have been the subject of features and monographic in-depth analyses published by important specialized and sector publications, including Art News of China (中国美术报), Chinese Calligraphy and Painting News (中国书画报), Research of Painting and Calligraphy (书画研究), Art China (艺术中国), and Shanghai Pictorial (上海画报).

Event coordinates :

Title: The Art of Zhuànkè: the Feitian and the Dances of Dunhuang

Solo exhibition by Peng Daqing

edited by Yinghao Kou

Opening: Tuesday, September 8, 2026, 6:30 PM

Presentation by Elisabetta Roncati

Location: MA-EC Gallery, Palazzo Durini, Via Santa Maria Valle 2, Milan

Opening hours: Tuesday-Friday 10:00-13:00 and 15:00-19:00; Saturday 15:00-19:00

Until September 17, 2026

Info: info.milanart@gmail.com , 0239831335, IG @maecgallery, www.ma-ec.it