All the fun of the art fair

Featuring the work of more than 146 galleries from 12 countries, the four-day Shanghai Art Fair has just wrapped up its 16th annual show at the ShanghaiMART on Xingyi Road. The event, from November 1 to 4, boasted a variety of artworks including paintings, sculptures, installations, pottery, porcelain and photographs and made for a fascinating journey through the venue's four exhibition halls.

As a major platform for selling and buying art, this year's Shanghai Art Fair welcomed more than 50,000 visitors and the turnover of the fair exceeded 100 million yuan ($16 million), according to Wang Anwei, a member of the organizing committee of Shanghai Art Fair.

Spirit of the work

Every Shanghai Art Fair features a themed sculpture at the entrance, and this year the artwork constituted two enormous birds each holding a small ball in their mouths (pictured below). The work was created by Peter Woytuk. "This is part of a series called Kiwi and was created when I was in my 20s. It's about joy and happiness. I made a couple of blue ones and a red one which I dedicated to this Shanghai Art Fair. I hope visitors can feel the spirit of this work," said Woytuk.

As an artist who has dedicated a lot of his works to public spaces, Woytuk was honored with the title of "Peter on Broadway" by the New York government in 2011. In all, 38 of Woytuk's sculptures were exhibited in the shopping malls of the Broadway area of the Big Apple earlier this year. The American artist's animal sculptures can also be seen in the Purple Roof Art Gallery in Yichang Road in Putuo district.

His works have also appeared at the Shanghai International Sculpture Exhibition in Jing'an district.

Sculptures have attracted a lot of attention at this year's art fair, especially bronze reproductions of the famous Three Graces by Antonio Canova, and Michelangelo's series of four sculptures, Day, Night, Dawn and Twilight both bringing a touch of the Italian Renaissance to the city. They are both on loan from the Heng Yuan Xiang Xiang Shan Art Museum on Jiujiang Road.

Created sometime between 1524 to 1531, the original Day, Night, Dawn, and Twilight work are now all lost and are only known from six sets of bronze reproductions. Canova's Three Graces depicts goddesses from Greek mythology. The artist made three such identical works which are on display today in Russia, the UK and Italy. And the sculpture on display in Shanghai is a bronze reproduced from one of these three originals.

Salvador Dalí's bronze sculpture, Venus is also worth checking out. Dalí's sculptures are regularly featured at the Shanghai Art Fair.

Visitor interest

Apart from sculptures, "pop art" pieces from the newly opened Halcyon Gallery in Shanghai were also a big attraction. The screen print Marilyn depicting film legend Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol, was a particular standout. Gallery exhibition assistant Sabrina Fan told the Global Times that this work is for sale at 280,000 yuan, and has attracted a lot of visitor interest.

The fair also features works from a number of well-established artists both from home and abroad, including Murakami Takashi, Wu Guanzhong, Zhu Dequn and Ma Xiaojuan, while showcasing more than 100 works by 36 young Chinese artists (aged under 45).

The pottery and porcelain exhibition hall gathered artworks, not only from renowned manufacturers in places like Jingdezhen (in Jiangxi Province) and Longquan (in Zhejiang Province) but also from overseas artists and galleries.

Oil paintings, small sculptures and prints all sold well at this year's fair. Works from famous Chinese artists like Yu Xiaofu, Ding Yi, Wu Guanzhong and Yu Zhongbao were particularly highly prized. And the Korean Mansuade Art Studio from North Korea, a first-timer at Shanghai Art Fair, sold more than 10 of its works.

"We hope the art fair will encourage more young well-to-do people to invest in artworks, and to facilitate the trade in art," said Gu Zhihua, assistant secretary general of the Shanghai Art Fair organizing committee.