The famous painter/sculptor Andres Alcantara is bringing a brilliant exhibition "Eight Bridges" to Shanghai now. The exhibition is a bridge between Chinese and Spanish culture.The dragons created by Alcantara display all the wisdom and vision of ancient Chinese dragons, but they are also imbued with the whole Western tradition too. In the ancient Greek, Nordic and Asian legends, they are represented with wings and sometimes with several heads. They always appear as guardians of healing or divinatory springs; or of virgins or treasure. Dragons pulled the chariot of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture."I think the craftwork employed to create the pieces attract the most attention, many of the techniques are hardly used at all nowadays, especially on this scale," says the artist, who used actual masonry tools such as engraver's chisels and hammers to sculpt with delicate energy a base-relief on zinc sheets. The results, once the plate was stained with ink, were spectacular: each engraved dragon is unique and a copy will cost at least 21,400 yuan (US$2,981).He has been developing his engraving work sporadically throughout his career as a highly prestigious sculptor and painter and has had works exhibited in public and private collections in the best art galleries in Europe.A Spanish company with investment in China commissioned him to create a special collection to exhibit and sell in the main cities in China. "It is an ambitious project and one of the most difficult of my career, but I couldn't say no to this offer, could I?" Alcantara says.To concentrate on the Chinese project, first of all Alcantara had to move on from Quixote. The Capilla de Oidor gallery held the exhibition of his Quixote works in the winter of 2005 to celebrate the fourth centenary of the novel. At that time the artist exhibited 57 paintings in bright colors and five stone sculptures.For this project he was asked to create works about mythical dragons, an important influence on Oriental customs and art.Using the documentation that the Chinese clients provided him with and through his own research he has symbolically and morphologically recreated the myth about this imaginary animal in various media - firstly with oils and then, once the painting is complete, he begins his sculptural work, which is much more complex. He would like to finish the collection by spring, which will consist of 100 pieces.The exhibition opens on February 19-29 at Shanghai Sculpture Space, Building A, 570 Huaihai Road W.