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Posted by: cici Mar 15 2009, 06:57 PM

Mainland Chinese Artists seek opportunity in Hong Kong
source: takungpao
translated by cici@AsianEU

oil painting "sister" is about to take part in Hong Kong auction


Due to financial tsunami, Hong Kong's art market with record breaking transaction is also affected in which turnover rate has dropped, and art transaction price has also dropped correspondingly. When transaction is low in art market in the moment, a group of young and middle-aged Guangdong artists carrying their works to Hong Kong to promote, hoping to occupy Hong Kong art market in order to transit through Hong Kong into the international platform. At the same time, many Hong Kong artists are keen to go north to seek opportunity in order to explore and expand the Mainland Chinese market.

Hong Kong, an auction center that is monopolized by both Christie’s and Sotheby's international auction houses, is an important transit point for Mainland artworks to the international market. But Hong Kong has been a art market that benefit developments of both low and high-end arts; the development of high-end auction house is very good, a lot of rocket-high price of art is purchased by foreign buyers. On the other hand, due to living in a small environment where it is difficult to place bulky artworks as home furnishings, small pieces of artworks are usually more favored by the middle class.

Tan Lian, manager of Guangdong auction house said, high-end artworks are currently affected by the financial tsunami that prices are not rising while low-end artworks has no investment value. Therefore, this is the time to invest in potential artists. However, Hong Kong's mid-range art market is not sophisticated. Yet, with the Chinese nation getting more prosper, more and more people in Hong Kong are acknowledging Motherland's culture, hence now is a good time to develop mid-range art market.

Tan Lian will be holding a showroom for Guangdong artists in early April in Hong Kong, in which some of the famous Mainland Chinese artists will carry their oil painting, painting, watercolors and other works to come to Hong Kong to promote their works. Telling reporters, Lian Tan says he has organized a Mainland Chinese artwork auction showcase since 2004 in Hong Kong, and discovered that Hong Kong is more influenced by Western culture and can not accept things purely from China, so oil paintings and other Western works of art has better market in Hong Kong currently. In addition, Hong Kong enterprises, apartments, hotels, associations are a potential customer base.

Also, labor, auction site and advertising expenses, such operating costs is higher when Mainland art auction showcase is held in Hong Kong because operating cost is about eight times of Canton's showcase. Price is another problem Mainland Chinese artists face when promoting artworks in Hong Kong, because most Mainland Chinese artists have high expectation on Hong Kong market, especially artists who have achieved a certain reputation in Mainland China. But in fact, these artists lack popularity in Hong Kong, and may require to sell their artworks in a price lower than those sold in Mainland China. Tan Lian says Hong Kong is an international platform that promotion is of greater significance than sales, because the correct attitude is to have room for its appreciation in order to accumulate popularity.

While Mainland Chinese artists move south to develop their international market, at the same time in recent years, many Hong Kong artists see the vast market in Mainland China and its rising purchasing power. Many artists turn to China, through organizing exhibitions and other forms of display to increase their visibility hoping to grab a slice of China's market in China's art auction and collection market. Similar to Mainland Chinese artists coming to the south, price is also the biggest problem Hong Kong artists face. On one hand, Chinese culture is extensive and profound that Mainland Chinese arts are diverse and whether Hong Kong artist's artistic style has been widely accepted by the market still needs to be verified; on the other hand, ignoring the well-known appeal factor, in similar techniques and artistic level, whether Hong Kong artists' works will attract buyers in higher asking price than mainland Chinese artists is also unknown.