Taipei Dangdai returns to a full edition this week for the first time since the pandemic and amid Taiwan’s emergence from prolonged and strict Covid restrictions.
The fair, which is in its fourth edition this year, expects 90 local and foreign galleries, an exhibition comparable to the first two editions of the fair but 45% larger than last year. Among the exhibitors, 30 are beginners, including many foreign galleries.
“Taipei is the kind of market [that is] still very attractive to international galleries, because Taiwanese collectors are buying so much,” Robin Peckham, co-director of Taipei Dangdai, told Artnet News ahead of the show’s premiere on May 11.
Taiwan is known for its long lineage in art collecting and craftsmanship. It is also one of the wealthiest places in the world, according to the Allianz Global Wealth Report 2022, which class the autonomous island famous for its technology and semiconductor manufacturing industries ranked first in Asia and fifth in the world in terms of net financial assets per capita.
As Taiwan has recently become a hotbed of geopolitical tension and faces growing military threats of China, the art market seems to function independently of all this. The island has an increasingly active younger generation of collectors who buy internationally, often over the phone or the internet – a trend that has been even more pronounced during the Covid restrictions, Peckham said.
Hello Chen, MBS (1996). Courtesy of Every Modern.
In turn, galleries, especially those catering to young collectors, are increasingly looking to Taiwan. “What we’re seeing is that a lot of galleries that maybe weren’t paying a lot of attention to Asia before Covid… they’re sort of [being] brought into the fold of the Asian market,” Peckham said.
“Young collectors have become a key group determining market taste,” said Yaji Huang, founder of Taipei-based Each Modern. His gallery returns to the fair, showcasing new works by Egan Frantz and Antonia Kuo, historical works by Hilo Chen and Chen Tingshih, and pieces by local artists Lin YiHsuan and Wu Meichi. Prices range from $6,000 to $120,000.
“The market grew during and after the pandemic, with more people and capital involved,” Huang said. “It is phenomenal that new galleries [can] develop rapidly.
She cites WMM in Taipei, Carp Gallery in Taichung, as well as Absolute Space for the Arts and Howl Space in Tainan, as evidence of an emerging and vibrant new scene in the city, with new commercial galleries as well as alternative artists. racing spaces appear more and more.
However, the rate of growth raises concerns. Between the city’s 20 public museums and the expansion of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, slated to reopen in 2027, logistical constraints could become an issue. “Soon there will be a problem of lack of staff, curators and managers,” Huang predicted.
Keem Jiyoung, luminous hour (2022). Courtesy of P21.
Among the exhibitors, 70 have spaces in Asia and will be presented in three sectors: the main section, the galleries; Edge, which offers 20 solo presentations by avant-garde artists; and Engage, a new segment added this year that includes seven galleries showcasing cross-cultural and cross-generational artwork.
New exhibitors include König Galerie, Nino Mier Gallery and ShanghART, which will be exhibiting in the gallery sector alongside veterans such as Gagosian and Lehmann Maupin.
Ben Brown Fine Arts, which operates in London and Hong Kong, will present a delayed appearance due to Covid for the first time, as the gallery originally planned to attend in 2020. The gallery presents a range of primary and secondary- according to Amanda Hon, Managing Director of Ben Brown Fine Arts Hong Kong.
“They don’t just buy the top 10 from the billboard,” Hon said, speaking of Taiwanese collectors. The long history of art collecting and the established local ecosystem of auction houses and galleries have contributed to the maturity of collectors there, she added.
“While some are drawn to pretty and popular works, many of them delve into artistic practice and look at the most fundamental paintings that define the artist’s work,” Hon continued. “Instead of just looking for work on a series that everyone owns, they take a serious interest in learning about periods in artists’ lives that aren’t as popular but nonetheless significant.”
Soo Choi, founder of rising Seoul-based gallery P21, will also be exhibiting at Taipei Dangdai for the first time. She brings sculptures by Choi Jeong Hwa and Haneyl Choi, as well as paintings by Keem Jiyoung and So Yong Park. The exhibited works cost between less than $10,000 and $35,000.
Choi is already in contact with Taiwanese collectors, but she is always curious to know what kind of reception they will give her. “I find them very knowledgeable and passionate,” she said. “My impression is that the well-known names … have a very strong market in general [here]but as my program is less conventional, with many artists presenting for the first time in the market, I am eager to hear their response.
Enoc Perez, go bananas (2023) © The artist. Image courtesy of Ben Brown Fine Arts.
Kwai Fung Hin, a gallery established in Hong Kong, is also present for the first time. “We mainly want to promote our newly represented artists Oswaldo Vigas and Ziad Dalloul,” said gallery founder Catherine Kwai. “We are curious to know how the Taiwanese art market has developed.”
Taipei Dangdai will also have programs dedicated to bringing together young collectors in the region. The initiative, Young Patrons Assembly, was launched in January at sister fair ART SG by organizers Art Assembly. The fair is expecting more than two dozen young collectors from Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Japan.
“We want to try to be in a position where we celebrate what is happening [locally]”, said Peckham, adding that the expansion of the Asian art market as a whole has not been about which city is trying to replace which as an art hub. “They all really serve their local markets.They serve a kind of community of [affiliated] people who live in other places who have a special interest in this city.
Taipei Dangdai Art & Ideas opens May 11 for a VIP preview and runs through May 14 at the Taipei Managing Exhibition Center.
More trending stories:
Follow Artnet News on Facebook:
Want to stay one step ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to receive breaking news, revealing interviews and incisive reviews that move the conversation forward.
