Three recession strategies for selling art in Shanghai - Shanghai Daily

Three recession strategies for selling art in Shanghai - Shanghai Daily
Posted by artradar on April 20, 2009
CHINESE ART MARKET
Art galleries are hooking up with hotels, art projects are on hold, and artists are printing fine art onto silk scarves. Just about everyone in the art world is compromising in the economic downturn, reports Wang Jie for the Shangai Daily.
ShContemporary art fair
There’s speculation that ShContemporary will take a break this year but this has not yet been confirmed and the fair began active media promotion last month.
“No comments, but more details will be given later,” says Gu Zhihua, director of the organizing committee of Shanghai Art Fair, and the Chinese partner of ShContemporary.
Last month, Gu and his team began media promotion and planning for the 2009 Shanghai Art Fair scheduled for September at ShanghaiMart - a half year earlier than usual.
“We will try to find buyers for galleries coming to our fair,” says Gu tersely. “The size of the fair won’t be reduced, it still covers 24,000 square meters.”
Galleries partner with hotels
Dealers are making moves to show their works in hotels including the Hilton, Renaissance and 5 star Shanghai Xijiao State Guest House to broaden exposure to their works and attract new buyers.
“A five-star hotel could be a helpful venue,” says Zhang of Simply Noble Gallery. “I want to give more exposure to the art in my gallery instead of locking them in the warehouse” due to hard times.
He might be onto something. Hotel guests are mainly businessmen and tourists who aren’t visiting to satisfy their aesthetic sense, but a picture might just catch their fancy.
At the Hilton, enquiries have already been made about some of the works on show from their local gallery partner.
Cheaper products
The Hilton Shanghai has also developed some art side-products, such as postcards and albums. Other art products being sold by artists in Shanghai include art dolls, limited edition silk screen prints and scarves.
For full article read Shanghai Daily: Can’t afford a multi-million yuan canvas? How about a silk scarf? Apr 2009
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