Chinese Contemporary Going Fast

MIAMI—All eyes have been on contemporary Chinese art lately, especially since October, when Yue Minjun's 1995 painting Execution was hammered down for a record $5.9 million at Sotheby's London. And it looks like Chinese art is still hot. At Art Basel Miami Beach, two major American galleries, who did not yet wish to fully disclose their plans, told me they are planning galleries or offices in China. And Sotheby's is hosting an exhibition of contemporary Chinese artworks at the Mandarin Oriental, complete with a lavish dinner tomorrow night. While there wasn't an abundance of contemporary Chinese art at the fair this year, what of it there was flew off the stands relatively early, especially the works by recognizable names.

Prominent New York gallery PaceWildenstein recently began working with Zhang Xiaogang and Zhang Huan. Featured front and center in the gallery's booth was a recent painting by Zhang Xiaogang, Comrades (2006), which was among the gallery's first works to sell today, at $650,000. The artist's "Bloodline" series has been a huge success at auction recently, with his 1994 painting Family Portrait fetching a record $5 million at Sotheby's New York last month. Pace is planning a show of his work for next fall. A Zhang Huan painting made with ash, Red Scarf (2007), was priced at $160,000, and also flew off the stand early. The artist hit an auction record last year at Sotheby's New York with his 2001 bronze sculpture Peace, which went for $408,000. His recent exhibitions at Haunch of Venison in London and Berlin were big hits, and Pace will show his work in May.

The talk of the fair was Shanghai-based gallery ShanghART's booth, which artist Xu Zhen had turned into an exact replica of a 24-hour Chinese convenience store, complete with everyday items like candy and cigarettes, all for sale. One customer, who says he owns works by the artist, could be seen negotiating with the clerk on packs of cigarettes, requesting those that were smoked by poor people in China, and those that are smoked by the rich. "These are very expensive," said the clerk, a ShanghART staffer, pointing to a red pack. He went with the cheaper ones. The clerk told me collectors can also buy the right to open a franchise of the store, for $20,000.

Over at New York gallery James Cohan's booth was another work by Xu called Never Falls (2006), a large spinning coin imprinted with a map of the world. It was priced at $65,000. The artist's performances at Cohan's gallery were among the highlights of last month's Performa festival.

Elsewhere in the fair, Los Angeles gallery Roberts & Tilton had a painting by Feng Zhengjie, Chinese Portrait 6, Series No. 26 (2007), that went to an American collector for $180,000 shortly after the fair opened. This price looks modest compared to Feng's auction record of $344,548 (achieved last week at Kingsley Art Auction in Taiwan), but it is significantly up from the $60,000 his works were getting on the primary market a year ago. A representative of the gallery explained the seesaw prices to me: In general Chinese contemporary art sells for more at auction than on the primary market, but prices for primary work have appreciated considerably in the past year.

Prices are rising even more quickly for Chinese artists on the auction market. But "there is no bubble," says Howard Farber, the American collector who sold a selection of works from his vast collection of Chinese contemporary art at Phillips de Pury & Company’s London in October. "The only bubble is in the bathtubs of the wealthy Chinese artists. The negative comments about this market tend to come from dealers who missed the opportunity to get in on it. They find they are paying high prices when they are used to nurturing a genre and getting in early. But the problem with the current rush to get into the market is that people end up buying the wrong works. You have to do your homework."

Sarah Douglas is staff writer for Art+Auction.