Asian Contemporary Art Fair Debuts in New York
News / New York
By A. Dyer Cushman

With several continuous years of record-breaking auction sales for Asian contemporary art and a worldwide boom in new art fairs, it should come as no surprise that the two trends would eventually coalesce. On the heels of the inaugural ShContemporary in Shanghai this September (see P. 86 & AAP 55), New York will now see the launch of the first Asian Contemporary Art Fair (ACAF), which takes place for four days at Manhattan’s Pier 92 beginning November 8.

The fair is quietly backed by Cristal Kim, owner of New York’s 2X13 Gallery, through her company Asian Artworks Inc., and is directed by Thomas Arnold, also director of Mary Boone Gallery, who has served as the event’s primary producer and organizer. The fair’s launch is timed to coincide with major contemporary sales at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and follows Phillips de Pury’s October 13 sale of the Farber collection of Chinese contemporary art (see AAP 55) as well as Sotheby’s headline-grabbing September sale of Contemporary Art Asia that netted over USD 38 million.

According to Arnold, ACAF develops from a need to showcase the diversity of Asian contemporary art and will bring together a large group of international galleries and artists, including those who have never shown in the US and others who are setting auction records. “There is growing genuine interest in Asian contemporary art among collectors, institutions and the public in New York. Yet such a broad sampling of art as what ACAF can provide has never before been accessible here,” Arnold told ArtAsiaPacific. Seventy-five galleries selected on an application basis will participate in the fair. A team of six specialized regional representatives including independent curator and ArtAsiaPacific contributing editor Eric Shiner and Arshiya Lokhandwala, founder of Mumbai’s Lakereen Gallery, informed the final selection.

Particularly noteworthy is that one-third of the participants hail from South Korea, a phenomenon the organizers attribute to an especially enthusiastic response after a Seoul stop on a cultivation tour that also touched down in Hong Kong, Beijing, Taipei, Shanghai and Tokyo. Arnold explained to AAP: “Many of the exhibitors desired to show at a fair in New York, and ACAF presents an ideal opportunity for them to reach an international audience in a focused environment that adds context to the works.”

China-specific galleries also boast a healthy turnout, ranging from New York-based Ethan Cohen and ChinaSquare—a recent arrival to the Chelsea district—as well as Beijing’s Red Gate Gallery and Amelia Johnson Contemporary from Hong Kong. A handful of pan-Asian galleries offer regional diversity, such as Kashya Hildebrand, which represents artists that work within multiple cultural backgrounds.

Regarding her decision to participate, Hildebrand commented to AAP: “Asian artists need a significant international platform that can support dialogue and discourse about their respective cultures and economies. ACAF should be an enlightening event for all and allow Western audiences to discover some very talented artists.” In Hildebrand’s case, these include Li Tianbing, born in 1933, who started off as a village cameraman in Fujian province in China and whose hand-colored portraits have come to international recognition through the efforts of Beijing’s Long March Project (see P. 150).

Also among participants are dealers like Bill Brady of ATM Gallery in New York, who began his program with a focus on local artists but whose roster now consists mostly of Asian artists including painter and illustrator Tomoo Gokita and mixed-media artist Min Kim (see AAP 51). Brady has kept his expectations for sales in check, but plans to give Kim a solo presentation in the hope that she might attract interest from ACAF’s Korean contingent. Although she is of Korean heritage and highly regarded in the New York scene, Kim has yet to have a gallery show in Seoul.

The fair, like many of its already-established competitors, is making an effort to include curated programs. New York-based curator and critic Lilly Wei is teaming with Eric Shiner to organize “Simulasian,” an exhibition exploring concepts of “Asianness” in contemporary art, with the twist that artists who are not ethnically Asian, such as Iona Rozeal Brown, an African-American, are also included. Wei stated to AAP, “We propose the concept of Asia as a state of mind rather than a geopolitical entity.”

ACAF organizers project over 25,000 visitors and an estimated $11.5 million added to the local economy before taxes on art sales, even as analysts, having recently seen severe falls in both hedge fund and real estate markets, suggest the art market may be ready for a correction. Others, however, are confident the emerging Asian interest in contemporary art will buffer Wall Street’s waves. Dealer Amelia Johnson told AAP: “It may be premature to predict an art crash. Demand for Asian contemporary art is underpinned by a new generation of entrepreneurs, particularly those from China, whose businesses appear to be relatively immune to the current credit crisis in the West.” She continues, “Considering the possibility that the prices achieved by contemporary Chinese art at auction are not sustainable, if we do see a correction, it may not be a bad thing in itself. In a less competitive market, collectors can be more discerning about their purchases and artists have time to experiment and develop ideas fully.”