Art Market
Remy Jarry
Interior view of West Bund Art & Design, 2024. Courtesy of West Bund Art & Design.
Since its launch in 2014 in Shanghai, West Bund Art & Design has become the primary platform for Western galleries to reach and expand their collector base in mainland China. Many blue-chip galleries with a presence in Asia participate every year, including Almine Rech (which has a space in Shanghai), Hauser & Wirth (Hong Kong), and Thaddaeus Ropac (Seoul). West Bund is also renowned for its well-curated, large-scale booths, highlighted in a sleek catalogue designed like an art book. Unusually, the fair was founded by an artist, the Shanghai-based painter Zhou Tiehai, who continues to oversee the fair to this day.
The 2024 edition of West Bund featured 122 leading galleries from 50 cities across 23 countries and regions, a level comparable to 2023 but higher than the pre-pandemic figure of about 100 galleries in 2019. The 11th edition of the event, which took place from November 8th through 10th, with the VIP day on November 7th, included 32 first-time participants, such as Karma and Galerie Kornfeld. Although there was a balance in the number of Chinese-native and overseas galleries, the high-end segment of the fair was clearly dominated by Western galleries.
Exterior view of the West Bund Orbit, 2024. Courtesy of West Bund Art & Design.
Today, Shanghai surpasses Beijing in terms of art fairs—with Art021 taking place simultaneously—despite the Chinese capital’s large number of art galleries. This is due to Shanghai’s dynamic cultural ecosystem, dense museum landscape (including the West Bund Museum just a few meters from the fair), and its pool of prominent art collectors.
The fair spans five venues in the West Bund (西岸) Xuhui district, in the southwest part of Shanghai, complemented by the outdoor public art display “DREAM xiàn chǎng,” which is on view throughout the area. Once an industrial area along the Huangpu River, the district has now been fully renovated and continues to develop rapidly. Halls A and B serve as the main sites for art galleries’ booths, with Hall A hosting most of the blue-chip galleries and Hall B focusing more on Chinese galleries, smaller booths, and a few international galleries like De Sarthe. Orbit, a new but already iconic undulating building designed by Heatherwick Studio, showcased design objects, and had a strong presence of Italian exhibitors.
Interior view of West Bund Art & Design, 2024. Courtesy of West Bund Art & Design.
The tightly curated selection included museum-quality pieces, such as Georg Baselitz’s 2023 works James Whistler’s Mother by James Whistler (The Maypole) and Being in Love, Then and Now, featured at White Cube, alongside a sculpture by the artist—both works centered on his wife, Elke. And Xavier Hufkens showcased the work of British artist Leon Kossoff, exhibited for the first time in China.
Overall, painting dominated, exemplified by Gagosian’s booth, which featured works by Helen Frankenthaler, Yayoi Kusama, Albert Oehlen, Derrick Adams, and Sterling Ruby, among others.
This year, the fair demonstrated strong connections with the wider Chinese cultural ecosystem, most notably museums. Having participated in West Bund since 2016, Timothy Taylor presented paintings by British artist Daniel Crews-Chubb, coinciding with the artist’s newly opened solo exhibition at the Long Museum in Shanghai. Axel Vervoordt followed a similar strategy, showcasing works by Mexican artist Bosco Sodi, whose art is also on display at the He Art Museum in Shenzhen.
Installation view of Timothy Taylor’s booth at West Bund Art & Design, 2024. Courtesy of West Bund Art & Design.
Lisson Gallery was one of the few galleries featuring photography, with a piece by Marina Abramović, who is currently holding her first major exhibition in China at MAM Shanghai. Perrotin presented a solo booth of French artist Bernar Venet, who is concurrently holding a retrospective at the Phoenix International Media Center in Beijing. Venet’s work, placed at the center of a cabinet-like space, was surrounded by works on paper by himself and Korean artist Lee Bae. Another timely booth: Almine Rech presented works by Tom Wesselmann alongside pieces by artists influenced by him, echoing the curation of the pop artist’s ongoing exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Louis Vuitton, along with UBS, serves as a lead partner of the fair.
As its name suggests, the fair also includes design works, though on a smaller scale. Finnish design master Eero Aarnio exhibited at the fair for the first time in Asia in a special exhibition in cooperation with The Baer Faxt. Works on view included his famous Ball Chair (1963/2018)—editions of which were gaining institutional attention according to sales representatives.
Eero Aarnio, installation view in “A Full Circle” at West Bund Art & Design, 2024. Courtesy of West Bund Art & Design.
Although most surveys on China’s economy point to a slowdown in growth and domestic consumption, including the luxury sector, the Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2024 revealed that post-lockdown spending in mainland China remained strong. Median expenditure on art and antiques from 2023 to the first half of 2024 reached a high of $97,000 among the 300 Chinese high-net-worth individuals surveyed. This resilience is likely encouraged by the gradual reduction in import taxes, from 12% to 1% for most artworks, and a reduction in VAT from 16% to 13% in 2019.
With Chinese collectors maintaining high levels of spending, galleries at West Bund focused on internationally established artists known for their investment value, while also offering a broad selection from their rosters, carefully choosing works to suit the local market. These targeted marketing efforts have helped galleries achieve better-than-expected sales, a sentiment frequently echoed by participating galleries. Many exhibitors—including Lisson, Perrotin, Ota Fine Arts, Timothy Taylor, Axel Vervoordt, and White Cube—expressed satisfaction with their results by the end of the fair.
Beyond the central focus on painting, it was difficult to identify clear trends in terms of the most sought-after artists: Works were diverse and solo booths rare. Sales volume, according to most galleries, appeared comparable to 2023. Dawn Zhu, Asia director for Thaddaeus Ropac, for example, reported sales similar to 2023, which were lower than in 2022. The fair management played it safe by featuring slightly fewer exhibitors than in 2023, compared to the increase seen between 2022 and 2023. This helped stabilize the offerings and avoid potential market saturation due to an overextension of demand. However, sales were slower to close, with collectors taking more time to make decisions.
Despite this calmer tempo, some high-profile sales occurred. For instance, Philip Guston’s Untitled (Red and Black Books) (1969) sold for $1 million at Hauser & Wirth early in the fair, and Perrotin pre-sold a sculpture by Lynn Chadwick for £120,000 ($154,507). During the fair, White Cube quickly sold a canvas by Lee Ufan titled With Winds (1988) for $1 million and Never Again! (2012), a neon work by Tracey Emin for £60,000 ($77,253).
Younger artists were also well-received, with De Sarthe selling a large canvas by Chinese artist Zhong Wei for a price ranging from $25,000–$30,000. Pearl Lam Galleries demonstrated an emphasis on cross-cultural collecting with African artists, selling three paintings by Nigerian artists Alimi Adewale and Babajide Olatunji, as well as one by Rwandan-born, Johannesburg-based artist Serge Alain Nitegeka.
Some participating galleries also praised the increase in international collectors. In addition to mainland China, there was strong attendance from Hong Kong and Taiwan, along with a few collectors from Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, and the West. Many were expats from the region, whose travel has been facilitated by China’s visa-free policy since December 2023. Mega-collectors were also present at the fair, including Uli Sigg, one of the most influential collectors of Chinese art in the world, who participated in the discussion panel West Bund Voice. Other key figures from the art world were also in attendance, including British curator David Elliott, as well as fair directors Patrick Lee from Frieze Seoul and Angelle Siyang-Le from Art Basel Hong Kong.
Overall, 2024 allowed West Bund to reaffirm its position in the high-end segment of the art market in mainland China, despite all the current challenges facing the global art market. As one Hong Kong veteran put it at the close of the fair: “Better than expected.”