Contemporary Chinese pieces shown in Athens

Waiting for the Birth of a Dragon by Qiu Zhijie.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Sun says all the works are not difficult for Western audiences to follow since this kind of abstract language has more than 100 years of history in Europe.

"Chinese artists have become major participants in world contemporary art, especially abstract," Sun says of what he calls a development in the past decade.

Artist Lyu De'an has two abstract pieces in the exhibition. Both show Buddha figures huddling together, in an imagery that is different from the reverential manner in which the Buddha is usually portrayed in paintings and other artworks. The artist titled his paintings Let There Be Light to echo the Bible.

"The light here refers to civilization. Greece and China are both ancient countries with their respective civilizations," says Lyu.

Lyu is also a poet. He is fond of titling his drawings with poetic phrases or sentences. He says abstract art is close to poetry, reflecting "one's soul and imagination".

The artist, who lived in New York for a long time, says he keeps exploring ways to merge Western modern art with Chinese traditional art, in his search for a cultural identity.

Sun says the show reflects Chinese artists' thoughts on their own culture. It's also a good platform to promote new faces in contemporary Chinese art in the West, where ink-wash art is the more famous Chinese cultural icon.