ART021 Shanghai Contemporary art fair, open this time in Shenzhen

SHINE | 06-Oct-2021 | By Wang Jie

ART021 has extended its art map to Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province. Operated by the team of ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, the first DnA Shenzhen Design and Art Fair features 33 top exhibitors from Asia, Europe and North America.

Running through next Monday at the Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning, the fair is striving to build a diversified international design and art platform for the thriving Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. “D represents ‘design.’ N is for ‘and.’ A means ‘art,'” explained Kylie Ying, one of the founders who opened ART021 in 2013 in Shanghai. “We encourage participating galleries to bring more design works. At the same time, we also try to strike a balance between art and design, between the East and the West, between new and old exhibitors.”

In 2018, the same team opened JINGART in Beijing. “ART021 in Shanghai focuses on chic art, and JINGART stresses on classic art. But here in Shenzhen, our emphasis is on the design part,” said Ying. The fair has attracted innovative young galleries as well as some pioneering design galleries. Artworks ranging from canvas, sculpture, installation, photograph to furniture are on display at the fair. They include heavyweight names such as Anish Kapoor and Shirazeh Houshiary. “Compared with the mature art scenes in Shanghai and Beijing, Shenzhen is a new art city filled with more possibilities,” Ying added. “On the very first day off we could feel the passion from collectors of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.”

According to Ying, works labeled between 100,000 yuan (US$15,500) and 200,000 yuan are the most sought-after. “Unlike other countries, art fairs in China are not all the same, especially in different regions. Each area has its own distinctive cultural background,” she noted. A series of events such as public projects, special projects and forums will be held during the fair.