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Creative flair on the cheap
By Xu Wenwen |
April 14, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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THE Cheap Artwork Supermarket is spreading affordable art around the city. The aim is to make art more of a lifestyle and to make life a little artsier. It's just one part of a city plan to promote all kinds of art. Xu Wenwen reports.
Art's not just for artists, intellectuals and rich collectors. Contemporary art is supposed to be for all the people, something they can appreciate and also afford.
At least that's the idea of the Cheap Artwork Supermarket, a 4,000-square-meter gallery that opened last January at the East Street No. 6 Art Space in Hangzhou.
Every imaginable kind of art - paintings, sculpture, photography, furniture, prints - is on sale, priced from tens of yuan to thousands of yuan. Some pencil sketches are even less than 10 yuan (US$1.46). Some are copies.
The second-floor space at Hanghai Road and Genshan Road E. is the place to discover and buy works of art created by art students, amateurs of all kinds in Zhejiang Province and elsewhere.
It's a good place for first-time buyers, as well as savvy collectors and others who are scouting out talent.
"You don't need to be an art expert or a millionaire to enjoy and buy art, and an expensive piece might not be a suitable one," says Xu Heng, owner of the art space. "The supermarket's approach is to make art more of a lifestyle and to make life artsier."
Xu openly admits the gallery has copied AAF, Affordable Art Fair, a showcase in England that aims to make contemporary art accessible to everyone. The idea has been adopted by several big city galleries around China.
These markets initially were very low-end but the economic downturn has resulted in much better times and new possibilities for affordable art supermarkets.
There's 365 Artwork Supermarket in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, offering more than 10,000 original artworks priced in the hundreds of yuan, or much less.
At Zendai Art Supermarket in Shanghai, around 80 percent of the collection costs less than 5,000 yuan. Since it opened last September, it sold 1.5 million yuan in artworks, news reports said.
"The market does not only popularize art to ordinary people through marketing," says Xu, "but it also gives young artists some pocket money.
"And these inexpensive artworks can potentially increase in value if the artists become known," he adds.
Since the space opened in January 2009, Hangzhou's Jianggan District Government has invested in the East Street No. 6 Art Space and supported it as one of the key cultural and creative industry entrepreneurs. It also holds art exhibitions in the first-floor gallery.
Every month, the works by some young artists are exhibited for free under the city's Plan for Young Artists' Development.
Low-cost art predictably attracts mostly young people and middle classes. Some older people turn up their nose, saying if it's cheap it can't be any good.
A 30-year-old white collar and an art lover, Minnie Xie recently bought an 800-yuan oil painting for her new apartment.
Her 60-year-old parents were strongly opposed, saying that amount was equal to the family's daily expenses for three weeks. Money is for practical things, not art, they said.
To popularize art, the city is encouraging East Street No. 6 Art Space to open a citizens' art studio this year. Professional instructors will give free lessons in drawing, painting and sculpture. The studio will only charge for materials.
Art's not just for artists, intellectuals and rich collectors. Contemporary art is supposed to be for all the people, something they can appreciate and also afford.
At least that's the idea of the Cheap Artwork Supermarket, a 4,000-square-meter gallery that opened last January at the East Street No. 6 Art Space in Hangzhou.
Every imaginable kind of art - paintings, sculpture, photography, furniture, prints - is on sale, priced from tens of yuan to thousands of yuan. Some pencil sketches are even less than 10 yuan (US$1.46). Some are copies.
The second-floor space at Hanghai Road and Genshan Road E. is the place to discover and buy works of art created by art students, amateurs of all kinds in Zhejiang Province and elsewhere.
It's a good place for first-time buyers, as well as savvy collectors and others who are scouting out talent.
"You don't need to be an art expert or a millionaire to enjoy and buy art, and an expensive piece might not be a suitable one," says Xu Heng, owner of the art space. "The supermarket's approach is to make art more of a lifestyle and to make life artsier."
Xu openly admits the gallery has copied AAF, Affordable Art Fair, a showcase in England that aims to make contemporary art accessible to everyone. The idea has been adopted by several big city galleries around China.
These markets initially were very low-end but the economic downturn has resulted in much better times and new possibilities for affordable art supermarkets.
There's 365 Artwork Supermarket in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, offering more than 10,000 original artworks priced in the hundreds of yuan, or much less.
At Zendai Art Supermarket in Shanghai, around 80 percent of the collection costs less than 5,000 yuan. Since it opened last September, it sold 1.5 million yuan in artworks, news reports said.
"The market does not only popularize art to ordinary people through marketing," says Xu, "but it also gives young artists some pocket money.
"And these inexpensive artworks can potentially increase in value if the artists become known," he adds.
Since the space opened in January 2009, Hangzhou's Jianggan District Government has invested in the East Street No. 6 Art Space and supported it as one of the key cultural and creative industry entrepreneurs. It also holds art exhibitions in the first-floor gallery.
Every month, the works by some young artists are exhibited for free under the city's Plan for Young Artists' Development.
Low-cost art predictably attracts mostly young people and middle classes. Some older people turn up their nose, saying if it's cheap it can't be any good.
A 30-year-old white collar and an art lover, Minnie Xie recently bought an 800-yuan oil painting for her new apartment.
Her 60-year-old parents were strongly opposed, saying that amount was equal to the family's daily expenses for three weeks. Money is for practical things, not art, they said.
To popularize art, the city is encouraging East Street No. 6 Art Space to open a citizens' art studio this year. Professional instructors will give free lessons in drawing, painting and sculpture. The studio will only charge for materials.
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