NEW YORK: When Brian Wallace opened his Red Gate Gallery in Beijing in 1991, the market for contemporary Chinese art was simply non-existent, explains the soft-spoken Australian dealer.
But now, with Chinese works among the forefront of an explosion in the popularity of Asian art, Wallace is among dozens of dealers and artists bringing their works to the United States to showcase young artists.
New York’s first Asian Contemporary Art Fair, which opened last Friday, is dedicated to profiling artists from well-established names such as Japanese painter Hiroyuki Matsuura to up-and-coming artists yet to make their mark.
As a result, the fair has works on offer priced from just a few hundred dollars up to 2.4 million for a work by Chinese painter Zhang Xiaogang.
“There has been a lot of discussion and interest in Asian contemporary art, the auctions have been doing very well, but still there was so much more that needed to be presented,” said Tom Arnold, the director of the fair.
“It’s really about being able to show the breadth of Asian contemporary art to an audience in New York. We’ve pulled together 81 exhibitors from 14 countries so we have artists from around the world all in one room,” he said.
Arnold, who envisions the fair becoming an annual event, attributes the popularity of Asian art to a general boom for young artists and the current vogue for all things Asian.
“Development in Asia in all areas — obviously financial, but cultural as well — has been astounding over the past 15 years,” he said.
“But I think there’s a general interest in artists internationally and a lot of these artists from many different places, not just Asia, have come to the forefront,” he adds.
Zhang Xiaogang, from the Sichuan School, is one of them and among the most successful young artists to come out of China in recent years.
One of his surrealistic works, “Chapter of a New Century — Birth of the People’s Republic of China,” sold at auction in New York in September for a record $3 million — more than $500,000 above its estimate.
Another of his works, “Bloodline Series: Comrade,” from 1995 sold for $2.5 million at the same sale — quadrupling its upper pre-sale estimate.
“The prices have really shot up in the last year to 18 months and part of that is the influx of the auction houses,” said Wallace, the Beijing dealer.
“It’s only recently that the market outside of China and inside China has taken off, in the last three or four years.”
“The Chinese market is very strong and there’s a lot of money there,” he explains, adding that while most buyers are interested in building collections, others were speculators attracted by some rapidly rising prices.
One inevitable result, he says, is that some artists are now overvalued.
Beatrice Lei Chang, who has sold contemporary Japanese ceramics at her New York gallery for 17 years but now increasingly sells Chinese works, said she had seen interest in all Asian art massively increase in recent years.
“We all know the power of China, which has really driven the market. There are so many collectors in China,” she said.
She warned that for anyone with a tight budget thinking of starting a collection of contemporary Asian art, it may already be too late. “The prices are skyrocketing, preventing many people from getting into the market.” But for one happy customer, buying a sculpture by South Korean artist Yoo Yung-wun made out of old magazines, the New York fair was a blessing.
“I think it’s great,” said Rachel Rudin, who already has several pieces by Asian artists and was buying Yoo’s “Media Woman” for her house in Miami. “I just think the whole thing’s beautiful.”—AFP
