Beijing Gallery's Ecological Survey

Beijing’s 798, Dashanzi, Caochangdi, Huantie, Guanyintang, and wineries have become a gathering place for contemporary art, and gallerists are increasingly active in the contemporary art market.

They experienced the ups and downs of the gallery industry, experienced the tumultuous period of contemporary Chinese art, some of them were “one time starting a business” and some were “re-starting”, trying to find a gallery development model that suits China’s national conditions.

It is no longer the traditional way of buying pictures and paintings, and it is no longer a traditional artist's agent. Instead, it operates the artist and the gallery itself as a brand.

In their eyes, companies need brands and galleries need them more.

Crisis after the crisis

Leng Lin is the founder of the Beijing Commune. In his opinion, after the economic crisis, the recent madness of the art market is not expected by everyone. Its development needs forward-looking ability to determine daily operations.

Before 2008, the development of the Chinese art market pursued a rough route. Artists and galleries of various colors could open a heated room with a few colors. They liked the common carp to stir up this unawakened market, and most of these carp are holding Service mentality, not business mentality.

When the financial crisis hit, the purchasing power of art began to fall sharply and many galleries were at a loss, but the market also recovered quickly.

Leng Lin said, "Before the economic crisis, the purchasing power of the Chinese art market was not strong, but later became the strongest purchasing power in Asia, greatly surpassing the recovery of western art in the European and American markets."

For a time, the repressed art cells in China began to arrogance.

In 2009, the gallery industry recovered quietly in the dark.

In the “2010 Contemporary Art Rights List”, the industry’s top ranking is the Pace Beijing Gallery. Leng Lin's main plan is to be locked in the two main lines of "introducing" and "going in", becoming an important link to push Chinese art into the world. At the same time, foreign masters such as Kiefer, Takashi Murakami, and Daminghurst were exhibited in Beijing.

Followed by Weng Ling's Tianan Time Gallery, not only to turn around, but also to make full use of its rare geographical advantages and Weng Ling's own curatorial communication skills, to bring artists from the art circle to the public.

The new frontier art space and Boers-Li Gallery have been relaxing and promoting the promotion of young artists, especially in terms of sales of art, and even more than some of the old gallery's ability to expand.

Local galleries have been exposed.

Five-step development

Chinese galleries not only started off at a low starting point, but the development of the contemporary art market is also mixed.

The first stage of the sword refers to the initial period of China's reform and opening up. The traditional "paint shop" style of art sales has been restored, but due to the lack of related laws and regulations or the old policy provisions, the development scale and development speed have been greatly constrained.

The 1980s was the second stage of the gallery's development. During this period, the art market rushed forward with lightning speed. There were an endless stream of galleries targeting the art consumption of the people, and the development of the Chinese tourism industry was also aimed at foreign artworks. The sales unit of consumers has contributed to this.

But at that time, there was no real gallery.

In 1991, Australian Brown? Wallace founded Beijing's first gallery, Hongmen Gallery, in the Chongwenmen Chinese Hotel. The journey of Chinese galleries thus opened, and strides into the third stage.

Throughout the 1990s, it can only be regarded as the creation period of professional galleries in China. Forward-looking gallerists gradually got rid of the traditional “paint shop” or touristic “art store” model and moved into contemporary management. Among them, Beijing Concert Hall Gallery, Dongfang Oil Painting Art Hall, Yibo, Fahrenheit, Donghaitang, Century Art Court, and Century Hanmo started to manage contemporary art works.

In 2000, the fourth phase began. At that time, most of the early entrepreneurs were eliminated and more and more professional galleries entered the market. This year has also become an important demarcation of the development of the gallery industry in Beijing. Two of the chiefs who have experience in the operation of international galleries, Cheng Yidong and Lu Jie, have returned home to explore the Chinese-style gallery.

This year, Cheng Haodong International Contemporary Art Space was established; in 2003, Long March Space was established. They have entered the "profit era," and Chinese Taiwan, South Korea, and European and American galleries have successively flooded into the Chinese mainland market, and a diversified galleries has spread.

After 2005, the ups and downs of the Chinese art market led the gallery industry to run wildly.

Statistics show that from 2006 to 2007, the number of galleries in China was in a period of sharp increase. In May 2007, there were 2,369 registered and operated in the name of galleries in mainland China. Among them, the largest number of galleries in Beijing is about 400.

Start again

The galleries of China have entered an era of brutal growth. In 2005, the gallerists involved in the museum absorbed the essence of the former people and began a new path.

Fang Fang is the founder of Star Space, and Star Space was established in 2005. The span of contracted artists was mainly between 1974 and 1983. Fang Fang believes that this generation has caught up with the rapid development of the Chinese economy, and the development of Chinese art has gradually introduced market mechanisms.

When Star Space initially signed up for stilts, his annual income was less than 100,000, and Starfield's turnover in the first year of opening was less than 500,000. Until now, they have always put "art value" first.

Housing said that the relationship between Chinese artists and galleries is a relationship that is developing with each other, and the degree of coincidence between them is regarded. For artists, there are no absolute good or bad galleries. Only fitting is not suitable. This stable relationship is an important guarantee for the growth of artists.

In the past, galleries generally adopted the method of changing hands and selling. The new generation paid more attention to the integration of capital and the integration of the local communities. They sought to create a platform for the post-70th and the 80th artists to create new cultural and cultural concepts.

Star Gallery has divided its works into three levels. The first phalanx is highly profitable; the second phalanx is profitable; the third-party array is allowed to lose 1/3 or 1/5 of the money, but it is constructive. Works may shape the future direction of art.

"Like Bell Laboratories investing a lot of research expenses every year," Fang Fang said that one-third or one-fifth of lost works are also investment in galleries and are active artistic explorations.

There is now a lot of similar thinking with the Star Gallery. For example, in the new frontier art space, in the shaping of the artist's brand, they pay more attention to the planning of the growth of artists, especially young artists, not just the commercial success.

The gallery owners did not hesitate and had already set off again.