Leng Lin on Pace Beijing

BEIJING—During the past decade or so, China has drawn snowballing art-world attention, with prices for top contemporary artists growing exponentially, the major auction houses establishing presences in Beijing and Hong Kong, and Beijing’s 798 Factory district starting to rival New York’s Chelsea in terms of the number of commercial galleries. So it comes as no surprise that this summer the Chinese art world reaches a new milestone, with PaceWildenstein becoming the first U.S. gallery to open a space in Beijing, just in time for the upcoming Olympic games.

But step back from the hype, says 43-year-old curator and critic Leng Lin, just named president of Pace Beijing, and you'll see that the Chinese contemporary art market still has a long way to go. He describes a place with little infrastructure, few available role models, and no established criteria for how to differentiate between good work and “rubbish.”

And he would know. Widely considered one of the best-connected and most influential players on the Chinese contemporary scene, Leng has been instrumental in making the market what it is today. He organized some of the first auctions of Chinese contemporary art, helped bring top Chinese artists such as Yue Minjun to Western attention (and Zhang Xiaogang to Pace), and curated several landmark exhibitions of Chinese art in the West. Since 2004 he has run Beijing Commune, a progressive but commercially minded art space in 798 where, according to Leng, “artistic creativity and economic power promote each other.”

At Pace Beijing, Eastern and Western art will promote each other. To inaugurate the new gallery, a 22,000-square-foot space in a former munitions factory in 798, Leng will present “Encounters,” a group exhibition in which Chinese superstars including Pace newcomers Zhang Xiaogang and Zhang Huan will be presented alongside such Western favorites as Chuck Close, Alex Katz, and Lucas Samaras.

ARTINFO sat down last week with Leng, who was in New York for the opening of “Zhang Huan: Blessings,” on view at Pace Wildenstein’s 25th and 22nd Street locations through July 25, to talk about the Chinese market, his vision for Pace Beijing, and what the American mainstay can bring to China.

Pace Beijing will be the gallery’s first international branch. Why Beijing?

Beijing is getting more important not only in terms of economics but also in terms of culture. It’s been the cultural center of China since the golden age, and it’s a bridge to Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Singapore.

I understand there are some 200 galleries in Beijing already. How will Pace stand out?

Pace has its own history and, as a very powerful gallery, its own system, which I think will do well in China. The contemporary art market in China is still very young; everything has happened very, very quickly, and it’s promoted in a not very professional way.

Right now it’s hard to distinguish good art from rubbish in Beijing; you can feel a lot of energy, but it’s hard to find good quality work. A professional gallery like Pace Beijing can bring a new level to the art market there.

Is there a difference between how Chinese galleries and Western galleries are run?

That’s a hard question, because there are different kinds of galleries in China.

A lot of people don’t know what a professional gallery is, or what a professional museum is, and they’re trying to find a balance between the two. Some galleries do good things and find new directions. But some don’t: They show work of poor quality, or have no direction, or don’t know how to develop.

The question is, How do you make art function in a Chinese context? You have to consider the knowledge and experience level of the audience, then you can choose what kind of art to display first, and determine how to introduce new things. That’s the question for galleries from the West.

Tell me about Pace Beijing’s first show, “Encounters,” which will present Asian artists and Pace’s Western artists together.

There are two goals here. One is to build the market for the potential clients from the region. The other thing is to promote Beijing’s role as a center of Asian art.