China International Gallery Exhibition: 5th round

Having usurped France’s third place in global art market figures for 2007 (behind the US and the UK) China is consolidating its global presence by hosting art fairs with a genuinely international reach.

Already in September 2007, a Shanghai fair entitled Shcontemporary brought together a hundred or so national and international galleries. Six months later (i.e. 24 – 28 April 2008) Peking is hosting the fifth edition of the CIGE (China International Gallery Exhibition). European and American galleries will be there with artists from all over the world – within a broad focus on the Asian art scene. As well as a large selection of Chinese galleries, the CIGE is also expecting galleries from Korea, Indonesia and Japan. The event will exhibit works by artists who are still relative auction novices and by Chinese artists who have already gained recognition in Asia, Europe, the UK and the United States.

Indeed, the auction sales figures attained by the stars of the Chinese contemporary art scene are becoming more and more spectacular in Asia with some sales breaking records set in Anglo-American markets. For example, on 9 April 2008, during the Sotheby’s sale of the Estella Collection in Hong Kong, a work by ZHANG Xiaogang – who will be 50 this year – entitled Bloodline: The Big Family No.3 doubled its estimated value when it fetched HKD 42.255 million (c. USD 5.4m). This spectacular sum set a new record for the artist. In 2007, both Christie’s and Sotheby’s in London and in New York had offered similar quality works from the same Bloodline series, but none had generated beyond 3.5 million US dollars… so Zhang Xiaogang’s ascension is continuing!
With 90% of Estella collection sold in Hong-Kong, the auction was a real success and has beaten the modest records for Chinese contemporary art last month in New York.

Among the other contemporary Chinese artists that dealers will be targeting there – and who were all present at the Chinese Contemporary art sales in March and April 2008 (Sotheby’s New York and Hong Kong) – are Fang Lijun, Wang Guangyi, Yan Peiming, Yue Minjun and Cai Guo-Qiang. The demand for works by these artists is intensifying and their rapid price progressions suggest that non-professional art enthusiasts better move quickly if they want to own works by these artists. Indeed, the big names in Chinese contemporary art easily find buyers at auctions. For example, of 15 paintings by the highly popular WANG Guangyi (born 1957) presented at auctions between the end of February and 10 April 2008, only one failed to seduce amateur collectors of the genre: entitled Eternal Halo (28 Feb. 2008, Phillips de Pury & Company NY) its black and white aspect may have put off potential buyers accustomed to the strong colours in his Great Criticism series. The other works proposed, at Artcurial, Phillips de Pury & Company and Sotheby’s all sold for between USD 45,000 dollars for the small formats (40 x 50 cm) and USD 400,000 for the larger formats (over 1 metre).

Young and yet already auction-confirmed, these stars of the Chinese art scene are accelerating the emergence of a plethora of other Chinese artists, particularly since 2006. The newcomers are mostly painters, but there are sculptors, photographers and installation builders as well. Among these emerging names: Su Xinping (1960), Wang Yuping (1961), Sheng Qi (1965), Guo Wei (1960), Feng Zhengjie (1968), Yang Liu (1982), Li Tianbing (1974), Shen Ling (1965) and Han Qing (1965) are all painters. Sui Jianguo (1956), Chen Wenling (1969) and Shi Zhongying (1975) work in 3-dimensions and Huang Yan (1966) and Chen Jiagang (1962) for photographers…