Smaller Space but Steady Sales at Asian Art Fair

NEW YORK—The International Asian Art Fair, a centerpiece of New York’s Asia Week, has seen its share of tumult this year. The fair’s owner, Haughton International Fairs, moved the event from the Park Avenue Armory to a slightly cramped, three-story former church at 583 Park Avenue at 63rd Street that, with built-in bleachers, is more suited to performances than to showing art. The organizers also changed the date from the originally scheduled March 28–31 to March 15–19, to avoid the early Easter holiday and coincide with the New York Asian art auctions. And exhibitors are down, with just 31 galleries participating, compared with 54 in 2007.

But the dealers appeared to be taking those changes in stride when ARTINFO visited the fair on Sunday, the fair’s second day, seeming in good spirits and reporting robust sales and attendance.

“We’re happy with what’s been happening so far,” said Sarah Ruddell, assistant director at Dillon Gallery, which occupied a booth on the top level. The New York–based gallery was showing a sampling of works from contemporary Chinese and Japanese artists, including those featured in its current “New Traditions in Nihonga” exhibition highlighting early- to mid-career Japanese artists. The gallery had already made a few sales, including Chen Wenguang’s vibrant November No. 51 (2008), in mineral pigments, silver, and gold leaf on paper. The painting barely made it onto the booth’s wall before being snatched up by a collector. Ruddell declined to give prices but said works in the booth ranged from a few thousand dollars to six figures.

Dillon Gallery owner Valerie Dillon said collectors seemed more interested in the investment possibility of art than in previous years. “People are really trying to get in on speculation,” she said. “The Chinese have been dominating the Asian market, but now collectors are asking what the rest of Asia is doing. The excitement of the Chinese market doing so well is flowing over into the other markets.”

That seemed to be the case at the Kuala Lumpur-based Shalini Ganendra Fine Art, too, which reported some important sales, including works from prominent Malaysian photographer Eric Peris’s “Tin Mine Landscape” series of lambda prints, priced at around $6,000 each. Gallerist Shalini Ganendra said she’s committed to promoting Sri Lankan and Malaysian art, and she’s finding a strong, burgeoning market for both—so much that the gallery recently opened a second location in London.

Another contemporary gallery reporting healthy sales was Art Miya, of New York and Tokyo, which dedicated its entire booth to Manga sculptor Yabuuchi Satoshi. Gallery staff could barely keep up with the collectors buying up the artist’s “Doji” (sacred children) sculptures playing on Chinese history and spirituality, created from carved Japanese cypress, lacquer, and pigments mixed with animal glue. The works were listed from $5,500 to $180,000, and red dots were abundant at all price points.

The New York–based British artist Alexander Gorlizki was also doing well at the fair, representing himself in a jam-packed booth discreetly tucked into a corner in the basement. Gorlizki had sold more than a handful of his small, quirky, and exquisitely beautiful works on paper, priced at $1,000 to $4,000.

Some dealers got off to a slower start. London gallery Olyvia Oriental reported no sales or reserves as of our Sunday visit, but was fielding inquiries into Chinese artist Liu Fenghua’s Terracotta Warriors (2007), a whimsical take on the famous Chinese antiquities. His versions, each painted with a theme, such as Mondrian-inspired horizontal black lines and primary colors, were listed at $300,000 each. “We’re seeing a lot of interest in emerging artists,” said the gallery’s Kathryn Burakowski. “People are eager to catch the next wave.”

Actual antiquities were also well represented at the fair, with everything from 15th and 16th century bronze Buddha figures to Mongolian ceramics dating back to 2000 B.C. on offer.

The only complaint, from both dealers and collectors, seemed to be the new venue. The booths on the top level had to be built in an awkward configuration, perched on platforms to circumvent the event space’s bleachers. One dealer, who asked not to be named, said there was no elevator available and she had heard complaints from older collectors trying to ascend the stairs, while dealers in the basement level felt as if they’d been forgotten. However, Ruddell, of Dillon Gallery, said being on one of the top-level platforms seemed to work in that gallery’s favor. “It forced people to come up and walk through the space,” she said. “It’s getting people to interact with the work, which is making it much more intimate.”

In addition to the International Asian Art Fair, Asia week also includes the Arts of Pacific Asia Show at the Gramercy Park Armory from March 21–24, and auctions at Christie’s (March 18–21) and Sotheby’s (March 17–19). Later in the month, Bridge New York, a satellite fair of the Armory Show that runs March 27–30, will also focus on Asian art.