Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair 2nd edition confirmed its position as the leading art fair in Asia.

Chen Wenling. The God of Materialism. (Best of Discovery, ShContemporary 08)

The 2008 edition of ShContemporary art fair which concluded on September 13th featured 140 galleries from 29 countries meeting in the spectacular Shanghai Exhibition Center and confirmed its position as the rising star of the Asia Pacific region - attracting collectors from across Asia, Europe and the Americas. 

The high level of the participating galleries, the increased quality of the exhibited works, the integration of independent curators selecting emerging artists and innovative Outdoor Projects reaffirmed the impact of ShContemporary on the contemporary art market. 

The opening preview and four day run of the fair attracted 25,000 visitors. All discovered with enthusiasm the addition of 17 Outdoor Projects (monumental sculptures, installations) surrounding the Shanghai Exhibition Center, as well as the Best of Discovery featuring  31 works by emerging Asia-Pacific artists selected by eleven curators.

Although the fair was held during the climax of the financial crisis that also affected the international Asian markets of Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Taipai, and Seoul, major collectors from the Asia-Pacific such as Hari and Mori and mainland Chinese collectors attended the fair. Many European and substantially more Americans than last year were spotted in the aisles. Peter Mallinson, Silvain Levy, Judith Neilson, Cees Hendrikse, Kramlichs, Rubell Family, Mordes, 30 members of Collector Council from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as a delegation from MOCA Los Angeles.

In spite of the difficult economic climate, many galleries reported strong sales shortly after the fair opened. Some examples of gallery results: Urs Meile (Lucerne, Beijing) sold a work by Ai Weiwei, a large work of Huanghuali wood with a diameter of almost 3 meters to a European collector. The gallery also sold Li Zhangyang’s bronze sculpture  Killing his elder’s brothers wife to a Chinese collector, representing a scene from a prohibited novel of the Ming Dynasty. In the first few hours of the VIP opening Bodhi Art (Berlin, Mumbai, Singapore, NY) sold 80% of their booth featuring Indian artists Subodh Gupta, Shilpa Gupta, Riyas Komu, and Jagannath Panda which sold to Chinese, Indian, and European collectors. 10 Chancerly Lane of Hong Kong was extremely successful with their sales of photographs by Stanley Wong, who in 2005 represented Hong Kong in the Biennale of Film in Venice. At the booth of Michael Schultz (Berlin,Seoul, Beijing), a German art collector bought a life size sculpture of a car by Chinese artist Ma Jun for 80,000 Euro. Ernst Hilger (Vienna) sold to American, Korean, and Chinese collectors- works by Sara Rahba, Danielle Buettti and 2 works of Oliver Dorfer priced  each at  60,000 Euro.  Pace Wildenstein of New York who recently opened a space in Beijing sold Chinese and western artists Zhang Xiagang  and Tara Donovan. Lehmann Maupin of New York, another newcomer to this year’s fair,  sold works by Lee Bul and Jennifer Steinkamp to mainland Chinese, Asian and European collectors. Max Protetch  sold Chinese artists Chen Quilan, Hai Bo, Fang Lijun and Yue Minjun.

“With its second edition, ShContemporary has proved itself as the leading art fair today and in the future for the Asia-Pacific region,” states, Lorenzo Rudolf, Director of ShContemporary . 
It has set itself apart from the numerous art fairs that took place almost concurrently in Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Taipei, and Seoul. However, ShContemporary was a complete contrast to the other fairs, reaffirming its specific positioning and its unique concept which with its high quality was more aligned with the parallel biennials and triennials held in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Singapore, Yokohama, Nanjing, Taipei, and Gwangju.