Modern Chinese art to get exposure at a major New York art fair

Chinese contemporary art will come under the spotlight of the American art market for the first time in a long while at a major art fair in New York.

Organisers of The Armory Show said the US had a limited understanding of the Chinese contemporary art scene, and that political events and negative media coverage of China had made it even worse.

Seventeen galleries from the mainland and Hong Kong will show works by more than 20 artists and collectives at the New York modern and contemporary art fair's Armory Focus: China. Most of those featured are not the "blue chip" artists whose work appears regularly at auctions.

Noah Horowitz, executive director of The Armory Show, said the art fair began featuring a regional focus section five years ago and had covered Berlin, Latin America, Scandinavia and America. He said there was a growing interest in China and its art market, particularly after leading Swiss fair Art Basel launched its Hong Kong edition last year. But the focus had been mostly on headline-grabbing auction results, he said, and stories such as The New York Times' reports in 2012 on the finances of former premier Wen Jiabao's family had created a negative view of China.

"There isn't tremendous awareness, in a sophisticated way, of the art world [in China]," Horowitz told the Post. "We are trying to show a younger generation of Chinese art and what's happening in China."

"There won't be Zeng Fanzhi, Zhang Xiaogang or Ai Weiwei . It's not just about a few Chinese artists and auction records. There's a whole art world in China. It's still developing, and there's a system in place," said Philip Tinari, the section's curator and the director of the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing.