Success at Art Basel Miami Beach + pics
December 26th, 2008
MoCCA partnered with Kansas City gallery and dealer Byron C. Cohen to bring our collection to SCOPE and Art Asia during Art Basel Miami Beach this year. Our two booths were the largest in the fairs and featured a collection of over 70 pieces of contemporary Chinese art. Our impressive collection was split by the masters, such as Su Xinping, Wang Huaxiang, Shang Yang and Feng Zhengjie, showing in Scope while Art Asia featured our more up and coming artists, such as Zhang Peng, Fan Xiaoyan, Gao Xiaowu and Zhu Yiyong. Our collection was an accumulation of the artists’ best pieces of 2007 and 2008. Many of the pieces were made especially for the fairs.
Lenny Schas, founder of MoCCA, at our booth in Art Asia
Left side of our booth at SCOPE
A feature of our collection was Ma Baozhong’s “Rise and Fall” which was the centerpiece of the 7th Shanghai Biennial in 2008. Due to its monumental size and breathtaking beauty, Ma Baozhong’s “Rise and Fall” was also chosen as the focus piece for the Art Asia fair. MoCCA brought Ma Baozhong to Miami and he was widely received by curators, collectors and art enthusiasts. In addition to Ma Baozhong, MoCCA brought artists Liao Yibai, Jiang Huan, Cao Xiaodong, Li Xiaofeng and Kan Can.
Mrs. Li, Kan Can, Li Xiaofeng, Melanie Lum, Lenny Schas, Jiang Huan, Ma Baozhong, Peng Di and Liao Yibai on our last night in Miami.
Although the fair took placed during the recession, we sold over 1 million USD, which is very impressive for a satellite fair. Many magazines and websites came to our booths to interview Byron C. Cohen about his “Chinese Contemporary” collection and why he has decided to show Chinese contemporary art. At the end of the fair, Byron C. Cohen and MoCCA were invited to join Basel Art Fair in Switzerland.
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Attention from the art world:
Chinese art critic and distinguished professor of art history at the University of Chicago, Wu Hung stopped by our booth and was mesmerized by the Shang Yang’s painting “Dong Qichang’s Plan-3.” He was very impressed by our collection at SCOPE in regards to the quality of the artists and their representative works.
Byron C. Cohen and Wu Hung in front of Shang Yang’s “Dong Qichang’s Plan-3”
Wang Huaxiang’s oil painting “Tied up Slave” received a lot of attention from the media (featured in the blurbs below) and the art world. A representative from the Guggenheim Museum considered the piece to be the most refreshing thing she has seen in all the fairs including big Basel at the convention center.
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Attention from the media:
Artinfo.com had this to say:
“Cohen sold a large painting by Wang Huaxiang, Tied Up Slave (2008), and a monumental work by Ma Baozhong, Rise and Fall (2008), which was on view recently at the Shanghai Biennial. The dealer is not revealing prices of sold work but will say that he has done “over a million dollars of business” at Scope, which is impressive for a satellite fair.”
Artinfo.com article
Art Basel Cheat Sheet: What you have to see from the Miami Herald:
“Don’t miss the bronze sculpture and companion painting of Mao fattened by the labor of workers by Wang Huaxiang at the Byron Cohen booth; be sure to nip around the corner to see Su Xinping’s Final Supper.”
Miami Herald article
From the front page of the Kansas City Newspaper:
Bruce Hartman, director of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, visited the gallery at the fair and found it “always filled with collectors.” “And this was a major accomplishment,” he said, “considering the hundreds of prominent, international galleries vying for attention.”
Kansas City Newspaper article
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Highlights of the collection:
Hen Sen’s “Are you tired? Take a break” at the entrance to our booth in SCOPE
Entrance into Art Asia, Zhu Yiyong’s “Remembering China No1 and No.2”
Gao Xiaowu’s sculptures “Standard Age” series in the hall between SCOPE and Art Asia.
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If you would like more information about the fair or the “Chinese Contemporary” collection, please send an email info@chinavarts.com. If you would like to purchase a catalog please contact Byron C. Cohen gallery in Kansas City. In 2009 the catalog will be available online through www.amazon.com.