New Force Blue Knight Shanghai Art Space Opens

        On May 29, bluerider Art (Shanghai) officially entered the Centennial historic building at 133 Sichuan middle road in Shanghai, which opened with a series of "century romance" activities.

Another new gallery star has settled in the Bund of Shanghai.

      On May 29, bluerider Art (Shanghai) officially entered the Centennial historic building at 133 Sichuan middle road in Shanghai, which opened with a series of "century romance" activities. The first exhibition brings Swiss artist Thierry feuz's solo exhibition in Shanghai and Taipei - "romance in Neo Baroque's blood", which is also the first exhibition of Shirley feitz in mainland China“ How can this young Gallery take the lead in the crowded art institutions and talents of Shanghai beach? Elsa Wang, the founder of bluerider art, recently gave an exclusive interview to 21st century economic reporter, unveiling the mystery of this young gallery from Taipei.

Unfinished artist dream

        Talking about the origin of art, Wang Weiwei said that she loved dancing and music very much since she was a child, and her dream of pursuing art had already planted seeds in her young heart. She has been engaged in science and technology entrepreneurship since she joined the work, but when the company she started up was stable, she resolutely left to pursue her unfinished dream when she was young. Despite her hard work, she still wants to be a professional artist. One day, she saw the work of avant-garde artist Wassily Kandinsky in the American Art Gallery. Through the painting, she felt that the artist was talking to her across time and space. She suddenly realized: "to be a professional artist, it's not enough to be a good artist. You have to be excellent.". I may not be able to do it myself, but I can recommend the good artists I see to you! " Therefore, she gave up the pursuit of becoming an artist and chose to run a "Gallery" - a career combining rationality and sensibility, and started her second career in life.

        In 2013, bluerider art was founded in Taipei. The gallery is named after der Blaue Reiter, an art group founded by Kandinsky and several representative artists more than 100 years ago. At that time, these artists expressed the idea of "soul first" in different styles. Wang Weiwei explained that blue stands for the soul, rider is a knight to defend. The gallery hopes that art can enrich the soul and reflect the most authentic voice of the current era, and takes "Knight defending the soul" as its constant belief.

The establishment of Shanghai space is a new milestone of the gallery's eighth anniversary. As early as Wang Weiwei was still working in a technology company, she had been to Shanghai for business and work many times, witnessing the rapid development of this place. With the gradual deepening of her understanding of the local people's life and culture, she found that Shanghai's exquisite cultural atmosphere was very consistent with the quality of the gallery she wanted to organize, so she did not hesitate to choose Shanghai as the settlement of the new space. Talking about the site selection of No. 133 Sichuan middle road in Shanghai, Wang Weiwei said excitedly: "when I first walked in, I felt that I had a lot of fate with it." This ancient building, formerly known as the British bournemen company, was completed in 1922. Its appearance is British neoclassicism and imitates the European Renaissance style. Its elevation, carving ceiling and door frame are deeply influenced by Baroque architectural style“ I think it's interesting to present and contrast contemporary avant-garde works in a classical style space. " Wang Weiwei told the 21st century economic reporter: "entering a space far away from the real society to see art can make the audience feel more when they come out."

Precise positioning and exquisite management

For the newly established Shanghai space, Wang Weiwei has a science like precise positioning.

In the selection of art works, blue knight shanghai art space will continue the preference of Taipei space, focusing on acting for European and American contemporary artists; The target market is customers from mainland China“ Seven or eight years ago, the gallery was just set up in Taipei. There are many galleries in Taiwan that have been working for 20 or 30 years. Good Oriental artists have been represented by them, so there is no competitive advantage as a new gallery. " "At that time, almost no one represented European and American contemporary artists, so we started from European and American contemporary," Wang told reporters Most of the European and American contemporary artists represented by Blue Knight are over 50 years old with mature style, but they have their own special features in the expression of creative language and the choice of media materials. Of course, the gallery also represents a small number of very talented young artists, but the proportion is about 28%, less than a third. Wang Weiwei also mentioned that in the past year or two, blue knight art space has gradually turned its attention to China, representing several Chinese artists with outstanding styles. For example, Zhang Huiwen, a young artist from Hong Kong, China, has created new meticulous works on animal protection with the contemporary vision of young people; Cao Jigang, a senior artist graduated from the Central Academy of fine arts, is famous for his landscape paintings in tempela. The first exhibition for him by the gallery last year was also very successful.

Naturally, acting as an agent for Western works of art, the market is mainly Asian, especially Chinese guests. In terms of price, most works are priced between 100000 yuan and 1 million yuan, which is acceptable to middle and high-income families. Wang told the 21st century economic reporter that the price range was set up because she hoped that the gallery would not be a space for people at the top of the pyramid“ With the belief of "art enriching and beautiful life", I hope that most of the groups I will attract are guests who like art and collection. "

      How to get rid of homogenization and make features and highlights in Shanghai beach, where large and small art institutions compete with each other? Wang Weiwei believes that from the selection, curation and public education, every business link should be carefully considered. In terms of the choice of artists and works, she and her team will, after careful comparison, find the works of artists with uniqueness, more complete life experience and contribution to the market. At the same time, we will also consider whether the price of the artist's work has been excessively hyped in the market, so as to ensure the reasonable consistency of the style, quality and price of the works, because "the selection is the life of the gallery". Secondly, "exquisite exhibition arrangement" and "art public education" are also the links that Wang Weiwei attaches great importance to. As the gallery adopts the long-term promotion mode of acting artists, they will spend a lot of time communicating with artists before each exhibition arrangement, understanding the content and personal characteristics of his works, and then assisting in the comprehensive presentation of supplementary materials. "It's not just what we see hanging on the wall. We pay great attention to the academic, viewing comfort, aesthetics and space proportion," Wang said According to reports, after the opening of blue knight shanghai art space, a series of professional art activities will be launched in succession, including regular in-depth tour activity "bluerider Walker", top experts' taste aesthetic lecture "bluerider insider", art knowledge sharing activity "bluerider know-how", independently produced whole network program "bluerider chat", cloud channel "blueridersky", International artists will also be invited to create on-site in large space outside the gallery to present a special exhibition that breaks the existing viewing mode.

Wake up the memory of a beautiful moment

        The sudden outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 is also a big shock to this young gallery. Not only was the opening time of Shanghai Art Space delayed, but also other planned exhibitions were urgently switched to live online due to the absence of European and American artists. "The equipment preparation and systems in different places are not the same. In order to do cross-border live broadcasting, we have overcome a lot of difficulties," Wang said However, her resume of working in a technology enterprise also gives her a dialectical thinking when she introduces AR, VR and other technologies to transform artworks in many galleries. "Art works, unless they are electronic creations of artists, will have traces of 'hands' if they are oil paintings and sculptures created by traditional techniques," she said. There will be technical difficulties in converting this into AR and VR. Is there any distortion in the works that are transformed and imaged by means of science and technology before the eyes of the viewer? Is there any way to fully present the feeling of presence or soul? Human eyes and pupils are very delicate. Although there are doubts about whether the technology can restore the reality, I think the future technology will solve these problems

Last year, international exchange activities such as large-scale art fairs were cancelled one after another, which is undoubtedly a fatal blow to many galleries whose income is mainly from the art fair. However, since the main income of blue knight art space comes from its own operation, it has not been greatly affected. Instead, it has more time and energy to organize more artists' exhibitions. Wang Weiwei told reporters: "when the international exchange stops, the demand of the local market is still there, and the external competition is less, which can activate our local market."

      In addition to the gallery management, Wang Weiwei, a collector, also thinks clearly about the relationship between art and people. She said: "art is made by people and ultimately collected by people. How do they have an interaction? I think the key thing is: use contemporary art to reflect the most real life of the current era, let the real voice cross time and region, and make the viewers feel the truth, goodness and beauty. " This is the reason why the first exhibition of Shanghai Space chose the works of Swiss artist Siri Fitz.

      Siri Fitz, born in 1968, is concerned about the significance of human "existence". Through a variety of mixed techniques and brilliant colors, he depicts flowers and creatures in nature, so as to awaken the eternal moments of beautiful memories in everyone's life experience“ Siri Fitz's work itself brings healing and positive energy. I got along with him several times. He is a man in his 50s. He can still see the world with his childlike heart. The romantic gene is in his blood. " According to Wang Weiwei, the artist has a work called silent winds oasis. It tells us that when he was a child, he was lying on a hill with his grandfather in the countryside. They were chatting. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, and all the flowers and small creatures on the hillside flew into the air. He had a deep memory of that moment, so he drew it down. Wang Weiwei explained: "on the surface, it is a flower, but if you look carefully, it is not a flower. Shirley Fitz did not paint a picture, but painted a beautiful moment. In fact, every one of us has a beautiful moment, but sometimes we forget. I think that's why I personally chose him to be in the first exhibition - to awaken our cherishing of beautiful moments and life. "

(Editor: Hong Xiaowen)