The rich millennials shaking up China’s art market
Young collectors such as 26-year-old Michael Xufu Huang are opening their own museums and galleries, and providing a platform to nurture a new generation of artists, curators and art lovers
A massive metal X marked the spot this summer for one of Beijing’s latest art world openings: a sculptural entryway to the double-storey X Museum in the buzzing Chaoyang district. Like almost every other event in 2020, it was delayed, but despite Covid-19 locking down the Chinese capital for most of the first half of the year, this vernissage opened to much fanfare.
China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration counts more than 5,100 museums across the country, and rising, almost double the 2,601 of a decade ago. But what distinguishes X from the slew of recently established private institutions is what happens when you knock off the 01 from that last number, leaving you with co-founder Michael Xufu Huang’s age.
Most 26-year-olds are not in the business of opening museums (X is a nod to his name). But most 26-year-olds have also not spent a decade amassing a museum-sized art collection, curated with the goal of defining a new Chinese identity.
“What we really lack is global presence,” says Huang of the Chinese art scene. “We need to earn that cultural respect and I think we can do that. Lesser known, younger Chinese artists address global topics now, so they resonate more internationally.”
The inaugural exhibition, “X Museum Triennial – How Do We Begin?”, explored the “spirit of the age” and featured 33 artists under the age of 40 from China or of Chinese descent. The show opened on May 30 and among the featured artists were Miao Ying and Cui Jie, who use the internet either as a medium or subject to speak to a generation that has grown up in the digital age – which is, by default, global in nature.
