[INTERVIEW] Taipei Dangdai revitalizes Taiwan’s art scene with collector-driven approach

5th edition of int’l art fair to return to island on May 9-12

By Park Han-sol

Just over two decades ago, the art market landscape in Asia looked vastly different from what it does today.

At the time, it was Taiwan that emerged as a major hub for the region’s art trade, hosting the Asia headquarters of auction giants Sotheby’s and Christie’s. By the late 1990s, however, the art world began gravitating toward the newly expanding markets of mainland China and Hong Kong, ultimately shaping the cultural topography we know now.

But this shift away from Taipei didn’t mean that its key players disappeared from the scene altogether. In fact, the self-governing island has a long-established tradition of art collecting spanning generations — from older Taiwanese families who have supported domestic artists since the late 19th century to Chinese immigrant families who arrived in the late 1940s following the exodus of the defeated Kuomintang from the mainland, bringing with them imperial treasures from the Forbidden City.

This cohort of early-generation collectors, most of whom preferred to remain in the shadows, largely focused on acquiring the works of regional modern artists and antiquities as a way to assert their cultural heritage and identity.

But the dynamic has begun to change in the last few years with the rise of a new generation of collectors — either self-made or second- or third-generation wealth — who are “altering the flavor of the ecology of Taipei,” according to Robin Peckham, co-director of the Taipei Dangdai Art & Ideas fair.

“There are many younger collectors now who are interested in having a more public face and an experience with international contemporary art. For instance, we have Vicky Chen, who founded Tao Art, Jenny Yeh, who has Winsing Art Place and Ping Tao Lee, who runs LIGHTWELL, [an art space blending retail and gallery atmospheres,]” he explained in a recent interview in Seoul with The Korea Times.

On the island, such cultural connoisseurship is paired with considerable buying power. In fact, Taiwan boasts one of the densest concentrations of wealth in the world, with over 765,000 millionaires in a population of 24 million as of 2022, according to the latest UBS-Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report.

It is these deep-pocketed, well-traveled local buyers with cosmopolitan tastes that Taipei Dangdai has come to serve since its arrival in the island’s capital in 2019.

“Younger people latched on to Taipei Dangdai as soon as we were founded because it can be kind of their ‘home base,’ where they can not only [experience] international contemporary art in the primary market, but also host their friends coming from around the world and show off the best of what’s happening in Taiwan,” Peckham noted.

This year’s Taipei Dangdai will host 78 galleries from 19 countries and territories, including 11 established and nascent dealers from Korea. Courtesy of Taipei Dangdai Art & Ideas

The art fair, in its fifth edition this year, will host 78 galleries from 19 countries and territories at the Nangang Exhibition Center from May 9 to 12.

The returnees range from blue-chip marquee dealers like David Zwirner, Perrotin and Galleria Continua to leading Asian names such as Tang Contemporary Art, Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Ota Fine Arts and Taipei-based Tina Keng Gallery.

Of the exhibitors are 11 established and nascent players from Korea: G Gallery, Gallery Baton, Gana Art, Johyun Gallery, The Columns Gallery, Art Space 3, A-Lounge, Foundry Seoul, Gallery SP, Lee & Bae and Seojung Art.

Malaysian artist Anne Samat’s “Never Walk In Anyone’s Shadow” (2023) / Courtesy of the artist and Marc Straus

Korean artist Woo Han-nah’s “Bleeding-5” (2023) / Courtesy of the artist and G Gallery

The participating dealers will be showing across five sectors — the main section; “Edge,” dedicated to cutting-edge emerging artists; “Engage,” highlighting contemporary creatives in dialogue with different aesthetic traditions of Asia; “Node,” featuring large-scale and immersive installations; and “Evoke,” a new segment added this year to showcase themed presentations with a historical injection.

Among the sectors, “Edge” is expected to offer a glimpse into the dynamism of rising Korean artists between their 20s and 40s, including Guem Min-jeong (Lee & Bae), who transforms exhibition sites themselves into the subjects of her immersive “video sculptures” and Rhee Dong-hoon (Gallery SP), whose practice revolves around boldly chiseled and painted wooden assemblages.

In addition to the gallery program, the fair will host the Ideas Forum under the theme of “Collecting as Culture” to highlight collecting as an intellectual pursuit that remains in dialogue with history and heritage — a quality Peckham believes makes Taiwan’s art scene unique.

“I think many cities are either artist-led or gallery-led. Beijing and, to some extent, Seoul has very artist-led art scenes. Shanghai is gallery-driven. Taipei is neither of those things. It’s very much collector-driven. “It’s the collectors who are pushing the landscape in a certain direction.”

Installation view of German artist Olaf Nicolai’s interactive installation, “How to fancy the light of a candle after it is blown out” (2018), at Taipei Dangdai 2023 / Courtesy of Taipei Dangdai Art & Ideas

There are several “first-time highlights” outside the fair venue as Taipei Dangdai’s strategy involves more than just sales.

“When people travel for art, they’re in a different mentality. It’s not just about seeing art in a convention center, but also about getting together and enjoying the city. So this year, we’ve pushedve really hard on creating [all-round] experiences for collectors traveling to Taiwan,” the co-director said.

Debuting this year is a series of exclusive cultural expeditions that will take VIP fair-goers to historical and natural landmarks across four cities: Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung. These visits will be sprinkled with encounters with the oeuvre of late Taiwanese masters, from sculptor Ju Ming to painter Yu Peng.

And for the first time, museums and state-led entities on the island are aligning their major programming to coincide with Taipei Dangdai, staging a more coordinated “art week.”

These include the grand opening of the new Renzo Piano-designed Fubon Art Museum with “True Nature: Rodin and the Age of Impressionism;” to William Kentridge retrospective at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum; and “Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London” at Chimei Museum. Running concurrently with such internationally focused shows, “Before Thunders,” co-organized by the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture and Taipei Dangdai, will be a survey of a dozen mid-career local creatives.

The 2023 edition of Frieze Seoul, held at COEX in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, from Sept. 6 to 9, drew around 70,000 visitors from 36 countries. Courtesy of Lets Studio and Frieze

In recent years, Asia’s art fair circuit has witnessed an influx of newcomers alongside Taipei Dangdai, such as Frieze Seoul, Tokyo Gendai and Art SG, joining their more established counterparts like Art Basel Hong Kong.

Some have expressed concerns about the apparent saturation of the region’s art calendar, suggesting that the proliferation of these events may intensify competition for a limited pool of collectors.

However, Peckham pointed out that the expansion of the region’s art market is not so much about platforms competing to replace one another as it is about each serving their local scenes in a more fine-tuned way.

“The entire Asian art market has become so complex, with so many players involved from different sides of the region, that it was no longer being efficiently served by Hong Kong alone. It’s about [understanding] the fragmentation of the market; collectors, artists and arts professionals in every place have their own internal conversations, and that can’t always be 100 percent reflected in one large hub,” he explained.

“For instance, going to Art Basel in Hong Kong is not a great way to keep up with the Korean art scene. It’s when you come to Seoul for Frieze that you can see why the artists make the works that they do because you’re immersed in the city.

“By having fairs in different cities, we can go deeper into these markets and really serve the new collectors emerging from them. And Taipei is meant to play a role in parallel with all those other art destinations.”