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"Enter The Dragons"
5 entrepreneurs who have successful companies in Shanghai. Andrew James of Andrew James Art is one of the featured business men.
Andrew James and Wang Jing of Andrew James Art are featured in the Chinese publication Ping focusing on successful partnerships.
Dorothy M.Yoon makes the cover of N.Y Arts Magazine. May/June
www.nyartsmagazine.com
Andrew James Art and Shine Art Space are interviewed for Shanghai Star business newspaper.
Modern Art meets the bottom line.
A growing wave of profit-driven investors is driving a speculative bubble in contemporary Chinese art. But, as Chi-Chi Zhang discovers, a younger generation exhibiting a better balance of aesthetics and financial realism is poised to help create a more sustainable market for modern art."Now this, I'd like to own, said Katherine Li, a 36 year-old interior designer fom Shanghai, as she headed toward a Xue Jiye oil painting near the back if the Art Scene Gallery in Shanghai's famed Moganshan Road creative complex.
Although the gallery features contemporary art fom relatively new local talent, these prices can carry a hefty price tag. Xue's "Human Struggle" a stunning depiction of masses of bodies, sells for about 142,000 yuan (USD$19,880), a valuation that draws a stunned reaction from many visitors.
Li admires, but moves on.
" Like most buyers in China, I began collecting seriously after I realized the investment potential" said Li, who also works as a part-time consultant and helps clients line their walls with attractive and potentially valuable artworks. "ofcourse, unlike some investors, if I truly love a painting, I will never part with it."
With more wealthy Chinese investing in contemporary art, Li's business is booming. In 2007, her clients from across the mainland bought more than 5.5 million yuan worth of contemporary art. Even friends and family members have approached her for advice.
The surge in China's contemporary art market has definitely picked up pace since 2001, according to Li and other experts. Sales values are the latest contemporary art auctions in Hong Kong for instance, more than tripled from a year earlier, according to Sotheby's Holdings INC. The painting "Execution," by the highly bankable Yue Minjun, set a record late last year as the priciest Chinese painting when it sold for US$6 million.
" Chinese people are beginning to realize that contemporary art is a symbol for forward thinking, as well as a status symbol," said Andrew James, owner of the Shanghai based Andrew James Art Gallery. "And with more disposable income, they are also looking for ways to maximize their savings."
As wealthy investors in Hong Kong and Taiwan steadily increased their collections, people on the Chinese mainland have followed suit, according to Vivien Ip, who serves upscale clients in Hong Kong and Thailand.
I've seen contemporary Chinese art steadily gain popularity in the past year with my Hong Kong clients," said Ip, who is based in that city. "But our clients in the Chinese mainland have observed these paintings appreciate fifty-fold and want to get in on the action.
As a result of the demand, contemporary galleries in China are sporting a new perspective in their marketing approach. More renowned galleries, like Beijing Art Now, are expanding to Shanghai and other cities. And local galleries such as Wujiaochang 800 Art Space, Outstanding Art and Shine Art Space have expanded beyond a single location into Shanghai's booming new art communities in Yangpu and Hongkou districts: Wujiaochang and 1933 complex on the North Bund.
The galleries are gearing up to take advantage of the international and local wealth flooding into China as a result of a booming economy, according to Monica Wu, manager of Shine Art Space in the Moganshan area along Suzhou Creek.
" As Chinese people become more affluent, they're not collecting European art, they are going straight for their own," Wu said. "It's an issue of cultural pride and investing in their own heritage."
But in China, where quick returns are expected, art may not be the best way to quickly enhance the bottom line "at least at present. In fact, many Chinese buyers have unrealistic expectations for short-term gains," said Xhing Yuchen, a Shanghai-based art consultant.Price Bubble
And much like those involved in the volatile stock and real estate markets, most buyers are neither buying for personal pleasure nor aesthetics and will part with their yuan only if convinced a painting will triple in a year or two, experts said.
When he came to China in 2005 gallery owner James bought for his personal collection a piece by Han Yajuan, a relatively new contemporary artis, because he admired it. James paid US$1,000 for the painting, never imaging it could sell overseas for US$25,000 only two years later.
Such rapid appreciation is creating a price bubble, experts said. As market speculation causes a spike in auction prices, serious collectors have been warned to wait until things cool off.
What many gallery owners hope to do is slowly change the way locals perceive a work of contemporary Chinese art. They're hoping to open the eyes of potential buyers to their own cultural heritage, including modern art.
" I want locals to understand as I tell all my clients, even if they are pure investors to buy for the sake of loving the piece," James said. "It's such buyers who remain the happiest, even decades later, regardless of the value of the painting."
The good news is that the gallery owners like Wu predict 2008 could be the defining year for China's contemporary market to adjust itself, providing a catalyst for genuine collectors.
"After the market cools, more collectors will surface, and we'll begin to see an adjustment in the market," Wu said. "No longer will paintings sell for six times their predicted value or appreciate 30 times in three years."
Within the next decade, experts also predict a growing base of young art collectors in the 30 to 40 age group, who like Li, have either inherited money or made it big on their own.
"Art collectors will be much younger in China as opposed to those in Western countries, which fall into the 50-60 age group," said James, who moved his gallery from London to Shanghai two years ago to take advantage of the local market"s potential. "This generation in China "people educated or who have worked abroad "are the ones who appreciate are not just as a monetary investment but truly love the work itself."
As China's economy continues to expand, investors and gallery owners like James are optimistic about the art market. Their main concern is finding enough quality talent to meet the hungry demand of buyers eagerly waiting for the arrival of the next Zhang Xiaogang.
Shanghai Talk March 2008
Featuring Dorothy M.Yoon
Shanghai Daily feature Dorothy M.Yoon
March 2008
All Things Artistic
Anderw James Art with contemporary art so hot right now - well-known artists fetching a cool $3 million dollars at Sothebys and Chrisites - this contemporary gallery - showcasing the new generation of up-and-coming but affordable Chinese art - is one place to go. Keep an eye out for Han Yajuan, Tu Hongtao and Zheng Delong.
Shanghai Daily June 2007
