Experiencing Art in Shanghai
In early November 2019, we traveled to Shanghai to visit its art fairs.
It was our first overseas art fair since Art Basel Hong Kong in March — a long-awaited opportunity that turned out to be a meaningful chance to experience the excitement of the art scene in China.
During this period, two major art fairs — “ART021” and “West Bund Art & Design” — take place simultaneously. Both attract internationally influential mega-galleries as well as many exhibitors from Europe and other parts of Asia including Japan, and both were bustling with visitors.
Beyond the fairs, we also visited galleries and museums scattered throughout Shanghai. Several mega-galleries have chosen to open branches in Shanghai rather than Japan.
This article serves as a roundup post that includes links to the individual reports written during our stay in Shanghai.
About Shanghai
When thinking about traveling from Japan to Shanghai, China, the first impressions that often come to mind might be “far,” “expensive,” and “uneasy.”
What the author felt during this 3-day, 2-night stay in Shanghai, however, was “close,” “cheap,” and “safe.” Blessed with fine weather, the bright Shanghai atmosphere overturned our preconceptions in the best possible way.
*Some cynics did point out an “occult” theory that “the government was managing the air quality during the international art fair season”…
Close
The flight itself takes only about two and a half hours. You arrive in the blink of an eye.
Hong Kong takes four to five hours, but Shanghai is reached almost instantly. With frequent flights, it is also easy to pick a time that suits your schedule.
Cheap
The author used airline miles (the route has plenty of seat availability, so booking two weeks in advance was no problem).
A collector acquaintance took a whirlwind trip using a low-cost carrier, and the price they mentioned was astonishing — a round trip for just over 20,000 yen. That is about the same as a round trip on the Shinkansen to Nagoya.
Local transportation was also incredibly cheap, which was a pleasant surprise. Accommodation costs can be kept low as well.
ART021
“ART021” is an art fair held in Shanghai, China, marking its seventh edition in 2019. It was held at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, a magnificent building. The U-shaped structure offers vast floor space, and the fair was staged on a larger scale than Art Fair Tokyo. You can read the report below.
“West Bund Art & Design”
West Bund Art & Design felt slightly larger in scale than ART021. The tendency of the artworks also felt more Western — while conscious of the Chinese market, there seemed to be many works with a more global sensibility. Several galleries exhibited at both fairs, but we sensed a slight tendency for them to place greater weight on their West Bund presentation.
Our report is written up below.
At the West Bund Art Center venue, a solo exhibition by Tomokazu Matsuyama was on view.
The area around the venue is also home to many commercial galleries, making it an outstanding environment for enjoying art.
Beyond that, Shanghai is dotted with many galleries — TANK, the museum run by Prada, mega-galleries such as Perrotin and Almine Rech, and more — offering plenty of options for viewing art. Scheduling can become quite challenging during a Shanghai stay.
Domestic Chinese galleries such as BANK MABSOCIETY were also extremely interesting.
Taxis are extraordinarily cheap in Shanghai, so we recommend getting around efficiently using the smartphone app “DIDI,” which requires no Chinese-language interaction.
Shanghai’s art environment feels even more developed than Japan’s.
The simultaneous staging of two large art fairs is one example, and with the sheer number of galleries in operation, one can look forward to encountering art unavailable in Japan.
