Shanghai photo fair focuses on up-and-coming artists, with Asian galleries strongly featured
China’s first dedicated photographic art fair brings works from 50 galleries. Women artists feature heavily and there is a re-imagining of a 1999 show that was closed down by authorities
Work by up-and-coming artists rather than celebrity names is in focus at this year’s Photofairs Shanghai, China’s first dedicated photographic art fair. Now in its fifth year, the show has also given over more space to Asian photographers.
Some 50 galleries from 16 countries are represented at Photofairs Shanghai, which started today and ends on September 23. Art galleries from Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong are still well represented, but more galleries from Japan are showing this year, and there is more space devoted to Japanese and South Korean artists, according to Liu Heung-shing, a veteran Chinese photojournalist and founder of the Shanghai Centre of Photography.
“So it’s become more pan-Asian,” he says.
Group fair director Georgia Griffiths says organisers made a conscious effort to boost Japanese involvement in Photofairs Shanghai this year. The show shines a spotlight on Hiroshi Sugimoto’s works, and Japanese exhibitors such as the Taka Ishii Gallery, Art Space AM and Rin Art Association are taking part. New York’s Christine Park gallery is representing a pan-Asian roster of artists.
