About Dafen Oil Painting Village
It all began in 1989, when the painter Huang Jiang started copying paintings on commission in this village on the city's edge. Other artists followed and, around 2014, some 7,000 painters worked in Dafen, which exported millions of canvases a year to the United States and Europe.
A visit is a stroll through lanes of galleries and studios, with art history classics hanging next to landscapes, portraits and the painters' own work. The best part is watching pieces in progress and chatting with whoever is holding the brush. If you feel like taking something home, an unframed canvas, rolled up, travels well in a suitcase.
