New kid on the Shanghai art block

Starting May 4, Shanghai’s sophisticates and culture mavens will have a new reason to head down to the Bund (as if the recently reopened Bar Rouge weren’t enough). The brand-spankin’-new Rockbund Art Museum marks its opening with an exhibition from internationally renowned Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang.

Housed in a 1932 art-deco building that was once home to the Royal Asiatic Society, RAM is part of a massive redevelopment project funded by The Rockefeller Group.

It’s a testament to the enormity of the city’s Expo-related construction boom that the six-block redevelopment project of the Waitanyuan triangle has gone largely unremarked upon.

But the opening of RAM is being heralded as an exciting development by denizens of Shanghai’s contemporary art scene. Leo Xu of James Cohan Gallery, believes that with the opening of RAM, Shanghai is developing a sweeping arts district “similar to Manhattan’s Museum Mile -- starting from the Bund area…connecting People’s Square, and eventually reaching the new art galleries on Huaihai Rd.”

RAM’s inaugural show with such a high-profile artist shows that ‘Shanghai is also a center for leading international art shows, not just Beijing where the majority are held,” says Andrew James of Andrew James Art.

Art Labor Gallery’s Martin Kemble remarks that he too is excited about the opening of RAM, but warns: "Shanghai’s lack of support for the young and new [artists] is very detrimental to the art scene… There are not enough public spaces devoted to the development of young emerging artists.”