East meets West

A joint show by ink painter Yu Ping and oil painter Chen Feng presents an incredible mix of Chinese traditional painting and Western oil art. On display are about 40 works by both artists in recent years. Yu's works focus on mountains and rivers while Chen has devoted himself to animals and vegetables. The two artists have often worked together on one piece to combine their different styles.

10 am-5 pm, through Dec 1. Art Museum of Beijing News Plaza Hotel, 26 Jianguomennei Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-8520-2618.

Yuri Bashmet

The Russian conductor, violinist and violist will give a concert along side with Moscow Soloists, a chamber orchestra founded by Bashmet in 1986. The China tour also features special guest performer Trey Lee, a Chinese cellist from Hong Kong. A new composition by Tan Dun, "The Everlasting Oath", will be premiered at the concert, which is a birthday gift to Bashmet.

7:30 pm, Dec 2, Shanghai Oriental Art Center – Concert Hall, 425 Dingxiang Road, Pudong, 021-6854-1234

80-680 yuan

Art from the street

Bund18 has joined hands with Magda Danysz Gallery to bring legendary street artists from New York, San Francisco and Paris, such as FUTURA, one of the founders of street art. The artists work in residence at Bund18, and visitors witness the work in progress, even videos of their performances inside, through the windows of Bund18.

Dec 3, Bund18 Gallery, 1F, Bund18, 18 Zhongshan Road E1, Huangpu district, 021-6323-7066

Picture perfect

Journey of the Heart and Straight Photography is a show that offers a rare glimpse into the development of world photography from 1839 to 2014. The exhibition has more than 200 works by 53 photographers worldwide, including William Henry Fox Talbot, Ansel Adams, Kim Weston (pictured) and Michael Kenna. It presents the evolution of straight photography, an important genre that depicts a scene as objectively as permitted by the medium. After the show, some 100 photos will be donated to the National Art Museum of China to enhance its collection of photos by the world's leading photographers.

9 am-5 pm, through Dec 10. National Art Museum of China, 1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-6400-1476.

The Ladykillers

British playwright Graham Linehan has re-written the screenplay of the fi lm from 1955. The Chinese production will feature some of the most beloved theater actors in Shanghai, such as Song Yining and Xu Chengxian. A charming Prof. Marcus and his band members rent rooms in the home of an old widow, who is unaware that they are a gang of thieves.

7:30 pm, Tue-Sun, 2 pm, Sat; Nov 28-Dec 25, Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center – Art Theater, 1F, 288 Anfu Road Xuhui district, 021-6473-0123

150-300 yuan

Tough Guys Don't Dance

Contemporary artist He An has created a series of new installations named after Norman Mailer's novel of the same title. He was inspired by the fragmented narrative as well as the explicit description of violence and sexuality in the book, and created new works by striking steel boards.

11 am-6 pm, Tue-Sun, till Dec 28, MadeIn Gallery, 4F, Building No.7, 50 Moganshan Road􀀠􀀁

021-6070-9561

Words Tend to Be Inadequate

This is a group exhibition that illuminates how the use of text in the visual arts can be as powerful as images in communicating ideas or expressing inner feelings. Works by Daniel Gustav Cramer, Gonkar Gyatso, Jenny Holzer, Qin Yufen, Qiu Zhenzhong, Tsang Kin- Wah, Wang Qingsong, and Zhu Jinshi will be shown in an exploration of di erent uses of text in art. If "words tend to be inadequate" on their own, then these artists aim to go beyond a word’s surface through their work to delve into deeper meaning.

10:30 am-7 pm, Tue-Sun, till Jan 10, 2015, Pearl Lam Galleries, 181 Jiangxi Road

Mexican silver

More than 150 silver art pieces that represent the best of Mexican culture and tradition are on exhibition. The antique pieces have come from the Arocena Museum, and modern creations from Tane Foundation are also on show. Silver coins from Mexico in the collection of Hangzhou Museum in Zhejiang province are presented, evidence of the exchanges on both sides of the Pacifi c Ocean hundreds of years ago.

10 am-6 pm, Tue-Sun, till Jan 12, 2015, Long Museum West Bund, 3398 Longteng Avenue, Xuhui district, 021-6422-7636

50 yuan; 80 yuan (combo ticket for the two venues)

Sean Scully

The abstract artist from Britain is having a retrospective exhibition, presenting his paintings from 1964. This is the fi rst time Scully's art has had a major career-length exhibition in China. Over 100 important artworks across half a century from London to New York are showcased in a multi-dimensional presentation of internationally acclaimed cultural fi gures of his time.

10 am-6 pm, Tue-Sun, till Jan 25, 2015, Shanghai Himalayas Museum, 3F, 869 Yinghua Road, Pudong, 021-5033-9801

The elements

The world's leading video artist Bill Viola premiers his latest work Inverted Birth through his first program in China. He brings three video installations together, including Martyrs and Raft. His video and sound installations focus on topics such as life, death, birth and rebirth, and bodies under extreme physical pressure. The movements in his works are extremely slow to show the direct emotions of people confronting massive onslaughts of water, fire or soil in his videos.

10 am-6 pm, through March 22. Faurschou Foundation Beijing, 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-5978-9316