A special summer issue of Modern Painters, which will be published in installments on ARTINFO this month, surveys the world’s best galleries, across six continents and 36 countries. Throughout the issue you’ll hear from 50 of the most influential gallery owners and directors, discussing their achievements and envies, the artists they have their eye on, and the regional trends affecting this increasingly international market. Below you’ll find Q&As with several gallerists based in Beijing and Hong Kong. To see other installments from the special issue, click here.
CHAMBERS FINE ART | BEIJING, CHINA
ARTISTS: Ai Weiwei, GAMA, Taca Sui, Wu Jian’an, Zhao Zhao
ESTABLISHED: 2000
INTERNATIONAL LOCATIONS: New York, U.S.
CONTACT: chambersfineart.com; bj@chambersfineart.com; +86 10 5127 3298
CHRISTOPHE W. MAO, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
How did you get your start as a gallerist?
During the 1990s, as I began my career in the financial world, I became increasingly interested in the visual arts. At the end of the decade I felt that the time had come to open a gallery in New York devoted to contemporary Chinese art. There was increasing international interest [in Chinese art] but no outlet for it in the U.S.A. I was taking a risk, but from the beginning the response was very good.
How have you generally discovered new artists?Are there any new discoveries for the gallery whom you’re especially excited about?
Very often through the recommendation of other artists. However, it can also happen serendipitously when a work by a young artist stands out in an exhibition and I immediately feel that he or she belongs in my gallery! I am excited about Fu Xiaotong, a young Chinese artist who creates extraordinary works using only handmade paper and a needle.
What was your biggest show of the past year?
Ai Weiwei in New York at the end of last year.
What’s one show you loved in the past year at a gallery other thanyour own?
Richard Serra at Gagosian in New York.
What trend do you see happening in your region right now?
It would certainly be the emergence of new collectors and institutions in China, neither of which existed 15 years ago when I opened the gallery.
What might you be doing if you weren’t a gallerist?
In different circumstances I would like to be a collector. Ideally, an artist!
Name the last great book you read, art-related or otherwise.
Penelope Fitzgerald, The Blue Flower.
If cost were no object, what work of art would you have in your bedroom?
Paul Gauguin’s Nevermore in the Courtauld Institute.
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DE SARTHE GALLERY | HONG KONG AND BEIJING, CHINA
ARTISTS: Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, Chen Zhen, Lin Jinjing, Wang Guofeng
ESTABLISHED: 1977
CONTACT: desarthe.com; hongkong@desarthe.com; +852 2167 8896
PASCAL DE SARTHE, OWNER
How did you get your start as a gallerist?
I started as an artist and did performances and installations. I opened my first gallery on the outskirts of Paris when a friend of mine gave me a space for free. In 1978, I was asked to run the Galerie-Association Katia Pissarro in the Beaubourg area of Paris, which I did for two years. In 1981, I moved to San Francisco and opened a gallery there. It was then that I started to travel to Asia and I slowly established a close relation- ship with collectors whom I still work with today.
How have you generally discovered new artists? Are there any new discoveries for the gallery whom you’re especially excited about?
I love art history and read a lot about it. Knowledge is the starting point to really discover an artist. The art market, however, has been more interested in following trends than focusing on creativity. Most artists nowadays are crowd pleasers, and for many of them, they are clueless of what was done previously and base their knowledge on auction catalogs. I am very excited about the Chinese artists we are working with. While keeping their cultural roots intact, artists such as Lin Jingjing, Zhou Wendou, and Wang Guofeng also have a presence in the global art platform.
What was your biggest show of the past year?
Last year we presented a rare collection of masterpieces by first- and second-generation Chinese artists who went to Paris to learn Western techniques. The exhibition was titled “Pioneers of Modern Painting in Paris” and included materpieces painted from the early ’20s to the late ’60s and early ’70s by Xu Beihong, Pan Yuliang, Lin Fengmian, Sanyu, Wu Dayu, Yun Gee, Wu Zouren, Wu Guanzhong, Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, Xiong Bingming, and T’ang Haywen.
What’s one show you loved in the past year at a gallery other than your own?
“Simon Hantaï | Pliage: The First Decade” at Mnuchin Gallery in New York. It is rare to see works from an important French artist from the ’60s in a New York gallery.
What trend do you see happening in your region right now?
There is a huge reshuffle within the Chinese contemporary art world, and this is a great time to stop just listening to the market-driven speculators and to be open to new creations in the Asian region.
Name the last great book you read, art-related or otherwise.
Lü Peng, A Pocket History of 20th-Century Chinese Art.
If cost were no object, what work of art would you have in your bedroom?
Zao Wou-Ki’s Hommage à Tou-Fou. This picture has haunted me since I saw it in a museum show over a decade ago. In a way, it is already in my bedroom, as it fills my dreams.
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GALLERIA CONTINUA | BEIJING, CHINA
ARTISTS: Ai Weiwei, Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Qiu Zhijie
ESTABLISHED: 2004
INTERNATIONAL LOCATIONS: San Gimignano, Italy; Boissy-le-Châtel, France
CONTACT: galleriacontinua.com; beijing@galleriacontinua.com.cn; +86 10 5978 9505
FEDERICA BELTRAME, DIRECTOR
How did you get your start as a gallerist?
I studied art before starting Asian studies. In 1999, I came to China to write my thesis on Chinese contemporary art, and in 2001, after finishing my studies, I got my first job as a gallerist, at Schoeni Art Gallery. I moved to BTAP the year after that, and finally I started working at Continua in November 2004.
How have you generally discovered new artists? Are there any new discoveries for the gallery whom you’re especially excited about?
It’s about feelings—between the artists’ work and us, and between the artists and us. It’s like in a love affair: there must be this magical feeling—and trust—to work well together and sustain each other.
What was your biggest show of the past year?
We have big shows regularly in our space in Beijing. We currently have Ai Weiwei’s first solo show in China. It’s a massive exhibition; we have a huge number of visitors every day.
What’s one show you loved in the past year at a gallery other than your own?
I really loved the Louise Bourgeois show at the Faurschou Foundation.
What trend do you see happening in your region right now?
We don’t follow trends… I really don’t know. Maybe the only thing I’ve noticed is people collecting more and more design products. I guess that’s a trend!
What might you be doing if you weren’t a gallerist?
Funny question. If I weren’t a gallerist, I could have kept on dancing, maybe. Maybe I’d be a dancer—or, more realistically, a full-time mum of three.
Name the last great book you read, art-related or otherwise.
Having three kids, I don’t have much time left for reading. The last book I read before delivering was Patti Smith’s Just Kids, and I adored it!
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HANART TZ GALLERY | HONG KONG, CHINA
ARTISTS: Fang Lijun, Qiu Zhijie, Xu Longsen, Liu Guosong, Feng Mengbo
ESTABLISHED: 1983
CONTACT: hanart.com; hanart@hanart.com; +852 2526 9019
JOHNSON CHANG, FOUNDING DIRECTOR
How did you get your start as a gallerist?
I started to write about art and curate exhibitions when contemporary art was a young field, and I opened an art gallery in the early 1980s because there were few places for artists to exhibit in Hong Kong and a gallery was the most viable way to create and maintain a platform for art.
How have you generally discovered new artists? Are there any new discoveries for the gallery whom you’re especially excited about?
We discover new artists from group shows and art academy graduation exhibitions. We also organize thematic exhibitions to create suitable contexts for new artists to present their work. The recent addition of monumental landscape ink painter Xu Longsen is very exciting; Xu Longsen has hitherto only exhibited outside China in museum exhibitions, including the first contemporary ink artist show presented by the prestigious Nelson Atkins Museum in 2013.
What was your biggest show of the past year?
We celebrated our 30th anniversary at the Hong Kong Arts Centre with “HANART 100: IDIOSYNCRASIES,” a noncommercial exhibition of 100 special artworks launched with an international symposium curated by myself and Gao Shiming of the China Academy of Art.
What trend do you see happening in your region right now?
The traditional medium of ink art has attracted many Chinese artists in the past few years, and the recent interest in sound-based art has opened a new vista for artists. Digital art is now a mature art form, and I see excellent works by the new generation of Chinese artists.
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PEKIN FINE ARTS | BEIJING AND HONG KONG, CHINA
ARTISTS: Chen Shaoxiong, Aniwar Mamat, Zhang Dali, Arik Levy, Zhang Xiao, Nashunbatu, Huang Zhiyang, WassinkLundgren, Yu Likwai
ESTABLISHED: 2005
CONTACT: pekinfinearts.com; info@pekinfinearts.com; +86 10 5127 3223
MEG MAGGIO, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
How did you get your start as a gallerist?
I come to the gallery world as an ex–corporate lawyer and art-loving collector turned entrepreneur. In 1997, I invested along with partners in one of Beijing’s first contemporary art galleries, the CourtYard Gallery—mainly in response to the lack at that time of permanent or fixed venues for exhibiting contemporary art in Beijing. We were able to work with many of China’s most well-known artists when everyone was still idealistic and there was no such thing as an “art market” or an “art industry.”
How have you generally discovered new artists? Are there any new discoveries for the gallery whom you’re especially excited about?
The best ones are well trained academically, imaginative, and ambitious. I look for new artists everywhere: at university graduation exhibitions, museum exhibitions, and online art media platforms. We work with artists of all ages, including artists representative of each generation of major Chinese art movements since the late 1970s: from post–Cultural Revolution Stars Movement artists such as Mao Lizi to young artists born in the 1990s. We are very excited to be newly working with Yang Dongxue, Xie Qi, John Clang, Liu Di, Xu Zhenbang, Zhang Xiaotao, Mao Lizi, and Zhao Liang.
What was your biggest show of the past year?
In Hong Kong, Zhang Dali. It’s hard to believe that one of China’s most influential contemporary artists, and China’s first well-known graffiti artist, never had a solo exhibition in Hong Kong before this one. In Beijing, Zhang Xiaotao’s solo exhibition. Zhang is the head of the new media department at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and one of China’s most well-known new media artists.
What’s one show you loved in the past year at a gallery other than your own?
The Chinese Photobook at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. This exhibition represents seven years of collecting the best of China’s artists’ photo books. And Ai Weiwei at Galeria Continua and Tang Contemporary in Beijing—a beautiful exhibition of new works.
What trend do you see happening in your region right now?
The massive explosion in museum construction and gallery growth in China has led to overproduction by Chinese artists who are hoping to take advantage of this recent increase in exhibition opportunities in mainland China. In the short term, there will be an excess of works by younger artists that simply mimic generic contemporary “global” styles. In the long term, the increased competition will push the best artists to the top. The mainland artists who maintain sincere practices, those who stay true to their idiosyncratic vision and impervious to global trends and styles, are the ones who will rise to the top and eventually receive critical success and attention.
If cost were no object, what work of art would you have in your bedroom?
Ed Ruscha made a wonderful work on paper, Discontinued China. I think that would be very apropos for me to own!
