AArt Fair

Set within the elegance and luxury of the Twelve at Hengshan Luxury Collection hotel in
Shanghai, Citizen Art Fair (AArt 2019) is a showcase of today’s trends for the majority of the
emerging artists in the region. AArt Fair’s 8 th edition shows its strong commitment to supporting
the local and regional creations by presenting contemporary art by mid-career and emerging
China-based and Asian artists, aiming to cultivate a new generation of domestic collectors.

Targeting to be an affordable art market, AArt Fair provides the public with the opportunity to
invest in artworks displayed in the “homey” environment offered by the hotel’s rooms. Taking
into account the growing popularity of the fair in the last years, the organizers added to the main
section - “Gallery Collection”, two other exhibitory sections “Urban Up-and-Comings” and “Art
Gifts”, and some special exhibitions such as “Art in Life - Qingmutang World Collector Series",
“Generations of Fenghua Watercolor Masterpieces Exhibition", "Japanese Classical Anime
Manuscript Exhibition".

But the most important feature of this fair was the opportunity offered to young independent
artists to showcase their works on an entire floor of the hotel, being a platform for emerging
artists who are just breaking through into the contemporary art world. So this edition of the art
fair aimed to connect artists, collectors and galleries through an open dialogue and easy
transparent interactions.

The main gathering zone (3rd floor) featured 38 galleries and 12 art institutions from mainland
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, showing the audience a wide range of visual
perception of the artists featured. All these galleries targeted Chinese collectors by bringing a
selection of works reflecting trends in the global contemporary art world; an interesting
international showcase for emerging and developing talent in an exquisite setting.

There were many fine exhibits, but I had some clear favorites: Affinity Gallery from Hong Kong,
Core Design Gallery from Malaysia, Artdoor Gallery Taipei, Lin Space Shanghai.

Affinity Gallery represents emerging and established contemporary artists from Asia and I must
say, the showcase was exquisite, not too crowded as in other rooms, aiming to a perfect
integration of the artworks in the space, to let them breathe and connect with the interior. Three
of their represented artists were chosen for the exhibit: Vietnamese HA Manh Thang, Taiwanese
SHIU Sheng Hung and Belgian Johan DE WITT. I had a wonderful and inspiring talk with Kim
Lam, the gallery’s director about the works of HA Manh Thang, an artist deeply interested in
preserving the old cultural values in the context of a destructive modern world. His works are the
perfect embodiment of the relationship between tradition and modernity, the artist searching to
emphasize the indifference of contemporary world towards important spiritual and cultural
values of the past, left to degrade in time. Extremely interesting technique of imitating ancient
murals with crackling surface, rich impasto layers reveal shimmering gold areas or liquid blue in
a visual poetry inspired from the Tang Dynasty songs.
Johan de Witt’s minimalist works let the viewer discover their tactile quality of “soft” sheets of
marble and resin.

A strong debut in Shanghai has Core Design Gallery from Malaysia, showcasing the dynamic
and creative artworks of the most important contemporary artists in the country. The vivid
exhibition included 5 of the artists represented by the gallery: Ali Nurazmal Yusoff, Haafiz
Shahimi, Husin Othman, Anniketyni Madian, Nor Tijan Firdaus, adding to display the works of
Al-Khuzairie and Sydafiq Hariz.

Acclaimed for his colorful realist paintings, Ali Nurazmal Yusoff shows strong, self reflective
compositions in which light and colors are the means to construct the forms.”Painting is a tool to
communicate my view of the world”, he states.

Haafiz Shahimi was acknowledged as the pioneer in the art of Pyrography printmaking,
researching thoroughly thermodynamics in order to create and develop new artistic techniques.

The remarkable sculptures created by Anniketyni Madian show her strong connection to her
native culture, the artworks being a translation in three dimensions of Pua Kumbu textile
patterns. The pieces are unique sculptures revealing a master of wood carving.

Another powerful woman artist in this display (applause for the Core Design Gallery for
showcasing the works of 2 talented women artists) is Nor Tijan Firdaus, whose creativity relies
on using discarded electronic components pieced together composing portraits of well known
artworks (Frida Kahlo’s portrait, Mona Lisa, Rene Magritte).

The ceramic artist Al-Khuzairie creates objects that ironically illustrate “the hideous side of the
human character” as he affirms in his statement, affecting the ecosystem.

Light Hu’s abstract paintings displayed by Unique Art Gallery, Taipei, reveal a world of
emotions in deep tones, on which she draws with very delicate lines of oil color elements
pertaining to nature (earthly textures, flowing light beam, spirals, flowers, fluid water).

Artdoor is one of the most famous art galleries in Taipei, showing a wide range of artworks, from
expressionist abstraction to surreal compositions, but I’ll present only 2 artists that kept my
attention: Mario Ram Mallari and Chang Jui-Pin.

Mallari is a sculptor who builds his works from metal residues collected in scrap yards, industrial
pipes, iron gears from dismantled bicycles or even heavy machinery, creating a world of fantastic
objects, machinery type installations influenced by Surrealism and steam punk aesthetics.

Chang Jui-Pin is a painter who creates “icons” like the Bucket man, a character she uses to
ironically illustrate social and economic issues in Chinese and foreign capitalist societies.
Conceptual, funny and iconic, Chang Jui-Pin’s bucket men have definitely more substance than
the unrighteous over praised “Companion” made by KAWS.
Lin Space Shanghai featured the works of Wu Lifan, whose paintings in gray and pink give the
viewer a melancholic state, a sweet but also dark feeling of the unknown. Chinese traditional ink
painting is mixed with contemporary gestures in order to create a sensation of three dimensional
depth.

The hotel rooms from the 5th floor accommodated the exhibitions of 32 young creators, in most
cases the artists were present and eager to greet the visitors and to answer questions. So here I
have to mention the precious help offered by Louise Lam, staff member of AArt Fair 2019,
whose presence throughout my visit I enjoyed very much.

This section, “Urban Up-and-Comings”, is a breakthrough project of this year's Shanghai AArt
Fair, showcasing young art creators from mainland China, Taiwan and the United States.as the
organizers stated in their presentation of the fair, this section “is a symbol of AArt's new
milestone”, arguing that “in the art market, the collectors seem to always prefer mature artists,
with a marketable resume, to the new generation of art creators”. And they are right. So the AArt
Fair’s strategy to support the new generations of artists is extremely laudable.

Ranging from Surreal compositions to Expressionist and Abstract ones, the works presented here
demonstrate the perpetual quest of the young artists to experiment with techniques, to express
themselves through concepts based on personal experiences, and not on Western contemporary
art trends.

The “abstractionists” were few, only 4 worth mentioning: Li Zhong and Hu Jun for monochrome
geometric compositions, interested both in textures and continuous sequence of tones, Chi Xu
Jun (Carol) creating colorful “cloudy” shapes with round pasted brush strokes, Chen Yukai
reveals street art influence in strange “landscapes” rendered by stripes and neon colors.

Surreal scenery of beauty and decay is rendered with great mastery in painting by Zhang Wei,
whilst Xiao Beichen amazes the audience with unfocused forms floating on white surfaces, the
erased effect of his figuration being created by numerous layers of resin and colors.

Zheng Yuning’s works reveal his unlimited patience of “painting” with the ball-pen, creating
allover compositions of floral patterns; Fang Jianxi oscillates between abstraction and figuration,
but the artist plays with the unexpected by adding to the canvas silicone type transparencies,
shifting the overall impression of the composition to a vivid and strange atmosphere. The same
strangeness resides in Pu Peng’s paintings as well, but it is rendered by overlapping miniature
cartoon like drawings (skulls, flowers) on expressionist backgrounds in dramatic tones.

Lin Zhuanghao (Mr. Ray as street artist) created strong expressionistic imagery influenced by the
drama of volcano eruption in Pompeii, when all was covered with ash. He is paying a tribute to
this Antique moment in history by creating powerful portraits, experimenting with metallic paint,
metallic powder and colors on acrylic sheet.
Collage technique was represented by Jaime Ekkens’ works, very interesting compositions of
paper cutting influence showing symbols of contemporary Shanghai: scooters and maps.

Regarding the watercolorists showcased in “Generations of Fenghua Watercolor Masterpieces

Exhibition", they are all exquisite artists, mastering a difficult technique with remarkable results.

Laudable also the initiative of giving designers a section to exhibit their creations, and I enjoyed
very much the jewelry and furniture pieces. The art of designing a book and creating a book as
an art-object was shown by Artron Books, the company being one of the partner of AArt fair.

So, regarding Shanghai art fairs, Citizen Art Fair has definitely a unique place not only regarding
the spaces to exhibit, but most importantly for the fact that it is a fair for independent artists, for
the unheard voices of the new generation of creators, and also an opportunity for Asian galleries
to present their collections. And when I say Asian galleries I’m not referring to those featured by
West Bund Art & Design Fair or Art 021 (Pearl Lam, Ota Fine Arts, ShangArt, AIKE, etc.) which
showcase mainly established and famous artists. These are those galleries scouting for talents,
help them grow and become a valuable asset in their collection.

For these reasons I think that AArt Fair is redefining the shanghanese art world, by giving voice
to the unheard, and improving considerable the way artists, galleries and collectors meet.