When Art Meets New Money: Chinese Participation in Art Fairs in Hong Kong since 1990

Abstract

Changes in the global economy since the 1990s are having an important impact on the international art network in terms of promoting the commodification of art and the formation of new hierarchies in the art world. This study shows how Mainland Chinese participation in art fairs outside the home country has led to an acceleration of this process of commodification. Based on multi-sited ethnography focusing on international art fairs held in Hong Kong since 2008 and on archives of important Hong Kong-based art fairs since 1992, this study draws attention to the roles played by Chinese artists, dealers, and collectors in this global transformation, showing how their engagement with changing global hierarchies within the art world is closely linked to changes in Chinese society including increasing socio-economic stratification and expanding social and cultural inequality. Recently, scholars have recognized the role of art fair as a powerful institution in the art world leading to re-negotiations of the valuation and exchange mechanism for art in the contemporary art market. However, fairs in the Asian context remain understudied due to their relatively short history. This study aims to fill this gap by highlighting the distinctive features of the leading art fairs in Hong Kong and relating them to the broader socio-cultural context of the development of the market for contemporary art in both Hong Kong and Mainland China. I hope that this study will contribute to initiating innovative dialogues and developing new theoretically informed and trans-disciplinary analytical frameworks to understand the recent development of contemporary art scene in China and its integration into the global art world.