“Now is a good opportunity to come to Shenzhen and grow up with this city,” says organizer Kylie Ying.
Few spectacles reflect a city’s cultural potential better than the establishment of major art fairs. Unlike museums, oftentimes state-sponsored or else vanity projects of the uber-wealthy, art fairs are calculated, mercantile operations. And Shenzhen, which was a mere fishing town 40-odd years ago, now has two.
In 2013, Art Shenzhen arrived in a city whose main art credentials lay in Dafen, an area known for mass producing oil paintings. Over the National Day holiday from September 30 to October 4, Design and Art Shenzhen (DnA) will join in. Courtesy of the experienced team behind ART021 and JINGART, major events in Shanghai and Beijing respectively, the fair will bring around 40 participating galleries and designers under the roof of the Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning in the city’s Futian Cultural District.
For a city long in the orbit of Hong Kong’s art scene, DnA Shenzhen is a sign that a young, dynamic metropolis with an increasingly affluent middle class is maturing and differentiating itself. For the organizers, it’s a recognition of the considerable opportunity on offer in South China and is the latest stage in a plan to cover the country with contemporary art fairs that are international in outlook yet tailored to local tastes. Continue to read the full article here
