Over the past few months, there has been much buzz around town about a possible new art fair in Taipei. Yesterday, the rumors were laid to rest by veteran art fair director Magnus Renfrew at a press conference held at Humble House in downtown Taipei. In partnership with the financial services company UBS Group AG, Renfrew and his team jointly announced the unveiling of Taipei Dangdai (台北當代), an art fair that will debut in January of next year at the Nangang Exhibition Center.
Renfrew, the fair’s director, is a seasoned player in the Asian art market and former director of Hong Kong’s first international art fair, Art HK, which was acquired by Art Basel in 2011, and continued his directorship of the fair until 2014.
The veteran art director sees great potential in Taiwan’s art market.
Photo Courtesy of Taipei Dangdai
“Taipei has ... a long established gallery scene, a extensive community of collectors, a vibrant cultural scene and the pure fact that Taipei is great place to visit,” Renfrew says.
While Art Basel Hong Kong has established itself as the international art fair in the Asian region, Dangdai will be defined differently by garnering its strength from a more regional market niche.
“There is a big gap between Art Basel Hong Kong and other fairs in the region, in terms of quality and how they are progressing. It’s necessary to have other fairs that have real quality and don’t necessarily aspire to be the global fair for the region,” Renfrew told Artnews.
The first edition of Taipei Dangdai will bring together 80 galleries from Taiwan, Asia and the rest of the world. The show will present a range of established and young galleries in four exhibition sectors, including a main gallery sector for leading galleries; a young arts sector for galleries of 8 years or less; a solo sector for single artist presentations; and a affordable art section for artworks valued at US$8,000 or less.
A series of talks will take place during the fair to build greater connection between art and other fields of knowledge including archaeology, urban planning, science and technology. Further details will be released this autumn.
Renfrew envisions Taipei Dangdai as a quality regional art fair that “adheres to global standards of practice in terms of selectivity.”
To ensure an objective selection process and avoid domestic politics, the fair has put together a selection committee of non-Taiwanese art professionals who have extensive knowledge of the Asian art market. The committee will be in charge of selecting participating galleries for the fair.
“We wanted to find gallerists with a strong understanding of Asia, and the ability to put the work of Asia in a global context,” Renfrew says.
Dennis Chen (陳允懋), head of UBS Taiwan, says Taipei Dangdai should elevate Taipei’s already burgeoning art market.
“Taipei Dangdai ... has immense potential for the development of the local art market and Taipei’s cultural ecology. The growth in the number of art collectors in Taiwan over the past 10 years has been matched by the quality of local connoisseurship,” Chen says.
In addition to financial sponsorship, UBS will be contributing to the fair program with a series of engaging activities for their clients, employees and the public. They are also planning educational events catered to a younger audience.
Feb. 17 to Feb. 23 “Japanese city is bombed,” screamed the banner in bold capital letters spanning the front page of the US daily New Castle News on Feb. 24, 1938. This was big news across the globe, as Japan had not been bombarded since Western forces attacked Shimonoseki in 1864. “Numerous Japanese citizens were killed and injured today when eight Chinese planes bombed Taihoku, capital of Formosa, and other nearby cities in the first Chinese air raid anywhere in the Japanese empire,” the subhead clarified. The target was the Matsuyama Airfield (today’s Songshan Airport in Taipei), which
On Jan. 17, Beijing announced that it would allow residents of Shanghai and Fujian Province to visit Taiwan. The two sides are still working out the details. President William Lai (賴清德) has been promoting cross-strait tourism, perhaps to soften the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) attitudes, perhaps as a sop to international and local opinion leaders. Likely the latter, since many observers understand that the twin drivers of cross-strait tourism — the belief that Chinese tourists will bring money into Taiwan, and the belief that tourism will create better relations — are both false. CHINESE TOURISM PIPE DREAM Back in July
Could Taiwan’s democracy be at risk? There is a lot of apocalyptic commentary right now suggesting that this is the case, but it is always a conspiracy by the other guys — our side is firmly on the side of protecting democracy and always has been, unlike them! The situation is nowhere near that bleak — yet. The concern is that the power struggle between the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and their now effectively pan-blue allies the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) intensifies to the point where democratic functions start to break down. Both
This was not supposed to be an election year. The local media is billing it as the “2025 great recall era” (2025大罷免時代) or the “2025 great recall wave” (2025大罷免潮), with many now just shortening it to “great recall.” As of this writing the number of campaigns that have submitted the requisite one percent of eligible voters signatures in legislative districts is 51 — 35 targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus lawmakers and 16 targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The pan-green side has more as they started earlier. Many recall campaigns are billing themselves as “Winter Bluebirds” after the “Bluebird Action”