SHANGHAI —The inaugural edition of theArt021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair opened its door to the fair’s invited collectors on November 27 in Shanghai with much poise and style.
The one hundred or so VIPs chatted and bargained with gallerists from the participating 29 galleries without the usual bustling crowd. The galleries are mostly from China, including established names likeShangART, James Cohan Gallery, Long March Space, and Chambers Fine Art, as well as new and upcoming galleries like Antenna Space and Leo Xu Projects. International galleries such as Galerie Perrotin and White Cube also set up impressive booths bringing big names like Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, JR and Takashi Murakami.
“We want to provide the big collectors with a first day preview with less people around, so that they can really view the works and talk with the gallerists in a comfortable setting,” said Bao Yifeng, one of the fair’s founders.
Art021 occupied all six floors of a beautifully restored art deco style building by the Bund, which used to be the National Industrial Bank. The building recently hosted the travelling photography show of Chanel’s "The Little Black Jacket."
ART021 opens its door to the public from November 28 to 30. Throughout the fair, there will also be several forums and symposiums mainly on the topic of collecting with speakers ranging from some of the top private museum direcors in China and the lengedary Japanese "salaryman collector" Daisuke Miyatsu.
Here are some quick highlights of what you can see at Art021 in our series 60 Works in 60 Seconds.
To watch previous videos in our series, click HERE.
