Abstract art seems a genre easy to try but difficult to succeed in.Artist Tang Yunhui's solo exhibition, featuring 30 of his abstract paintings, is under way at the Chen Yifei Visual Arts Center.

Tang's canvases are not obviously impressive or striking at first sight - the blocks of color and the splash effects look familiar.

"Perhaps you are right," the artist says. "But if you step closer, you will find something quite different."

Famous for his cartoons, the artist has for the first time moved from painting cute, lovable animal characters to a more abstract and profound world.

"I am still in an experimental phase. I wanted to fuse some of my previous cartoon images into the new works," he says. "Of course, these cartoon images are not as realistic but hidden in a blurred form."

Born in 1961 in Shanghai, Tang is a member of the Shanghai Artists Association. He rose to fame with a series of romantic and fairytale- like cartoon paintings.

"Believe it or not, many adults also like these paintings because they tell of the truth and beauty of a utopian world."

Normally it is difficult for a painter to change style and subject matter and Tang has had problems.

"I would like to go beyond my limits as I have many things to express," he explains. "Obviously these current dream paintings are not 'heavy' enough to go deeper."

Tang says that his new work sometimes includes references to traditional ink-wash painting techniques like splashes and implicative brushstrokes.

"I don't know whether they will be accepted by the public or not, and I am curious to see the response," he says. "After all I have taken the first step. That's the charm of art - capricious and uncontrolled."