World's most compelling art to arrive in Shanghai
Get your camera and cash ready for Asia's most cutting-edge art pieces on 2011 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair.September has always been the art season for Shanghai and this year’s Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair (aka SH Contemporary) has already drawn quite a bit of attention from the international art community.
Directed by former Italian magazine editor Massimo Torrigiani, the 2011 SH Contemporary is the fifth edition of the annual art fair. According to online art newspaper Artdaily.org, it will “disclose the world's most compelling choice of Chinese and Asian contemporary art, alongside a selection of Western artists and galleries”.
Shanghai art aficionados will be able to enjoy works presented by 90 participating galleries, from China and abroad, during the four-day art extravaganza.
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Two-thirds of the exhibits will be from Chinese galleries or international galleries with spaces in China, including big names such as James Cohan and Pace Beijing.
(Check out a full list of the participating galleries and institutions here.)
Two spotlight sections of the 2011 SH Contemporary are the Asia Pacific Photography Prize, showcasing Asia’s photography trends, and a series of “special projects” developed by ArtHub, a not-for-profit organization supporting Asia’s contemporary arts scene.
“SH Contemporary is one of the more important art fairs in China and many art-related people pay much attention to it,” said Lise Li (李力), owner of Shanghai-based Vanguard Gallery and a participant in this year’s Asia Pacific Photography Prize section.
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The 2011 SH Contemporary will open to a Chinese art market in full swing. Art is now the new favorite of wealthy Chinese after the authorities imposed a series of regulations to cool down the real estate market in the past year.
China Art Weekly reported that the Chinese art auction market has been flourishing at top speed since the autumn of 2010.
In the first half of 2011, the total turnover of China’s art auction has passed RMB 12 billion. Beijing-based Poly International Auction and China Guardian Auctions were leading the sales.
2011 SH Contemporary (上海艺术博览会国际当代艺术展), September 7 (media show, invitation only), September 8-10 (public show), Shanghai Exhibition Center, 1000 Yan’an Zhong Lu, near Tongren Lu 延安中路1000号, 近铜仁路, 5 p.m.-7 p.m. (September 7), 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (September 8-9), 11 a.m.- 5 p.m.(Sept. 10), RMB 50, http://www.shcontemporary.info/en
