Guangzhou’s potential as contemporary art hub in doubt as new Moordn Art Fair draws crowds but generates few sales
- Created to tap Chinese economic powerhouse Guangzhou’s potential as a big art market, Moordn Art Fair drew lots of visitors in its first in-person iteration
- Big-name galleries were also present, but their slow sales showed the limitations of the city’s nascent market and left some gallerists unsure if they’ll return
As a metropolis with 18 million people and one of China’s economic powerhouses, Guangzhou is being eyed by art galleries for its potential as the next big art market.
One sign of the strong interest in contemporary art in the southern Chinese city was the crowd that filed into the Nan Fung International Convention and Exhibition Center for the opening of the Moordn Art Fair on December 8.
“Guangzhou actually has all the infrastructure needed for a contemporary art [hub], including an art academy, the Guangdong Art Museum and an auction house.
“All these hint at a great potential, and the local audience are studious and well-mannered,” says Sophia Wang of Beijing’s Pifo Gallery, who brought work by eight artists to sell at the fair, the prices for which ranged from 40,000 yuan (US$5,600) to 900,000 yuan.
This was not the first Moordn Art Fair. It was first staged online in 2022, when Covid-19 pandemic social-distancing precautions were still in effect.
Moordn is a four-year-old art-industry consulting and marketing business whose quirky spelling comes from its Chinese name – a pun on the words for magic lantern and modern, which are homophones in Mandarin.
