Julie Chun Southern Port of Call: Guangzhou’s Current Galleries uangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, commands its place as third of the largest and most populated cities in GChina, after Beijing and Shanghai. With glossy skyscrapers in Zhujiang New Town marking what the Guardian has termed the “Great Leap Upward,” the soaring might of Guangzhou’s economic commerce is reinforced by the city’s futuristic zones of urban planning and its ever- expanding infrastructure of highways.1 With palpable wealth visibly pronounced in ultra-luxury malls to rival Hong Kong and Los Angeles and in the built culture of prominent edifices like the Zaha Hadid-designed Guangzhou Opera House and the state-of-the art Guangzhou Library, the city has revived the Guangzhou Triennial (established in 2002 at the Guangdong Museum of Art) with renewed vigor while the Guangdong Times Museum (established 2010) continues to sustain quality exhibitions.2 Yet, beyond its identity as an expansive metropolis, the familiar moniker “Canton” also conjures up nostalgic visions of a bustling port life in southern China that has resolutely endured on the estuary of the Pearl River Delta. Even merely five years ago, in 2012, when there existed only a handful of galleries, the notable trailblazers of contemporary art were CANTONBON (established in 1993) and Vitamin Creative Space (established in 2002). In recent years, due to increasing interest in the region by the global arts community, the founding players of the Canton art world have stepped up and increased their game, which this essay seeks to examine. Moreover, how are the young emerging and mid-career artists locating their inspiration and expressing their unique artistic voice in a way that has resonance to their place in society? Can the next generation attempt to follow in the giant steps forged by the heavyweight artists and artistic groups of the past such as Chen Tong, Xu Tan, Zheng Guogu, and the late Chen Shaoxiong? Mirrored Gardens Annually, when the global art community descends upon Hong Kong for Art Basel, those seeking respite from the intensity of the art marketplace would make the just over 100 kilometre trek to Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou. Established in 2002 by Zhang Wei with writer Hu Fang, the original space consisted of a third-floor exhibition room at 29 Hao Heng Yi Jie, situated above a “wet” market (selling local meat and fresh produce). Representing many artists who have gained critical and commercial acclaim, such as Cao Fei, Zheng Guogu, Duan Jianyu, Pak Sheung Chuen, Zhou Tao, Xu Tan, just to name a few, Vitamin’s mission has been to explore the “alternative working mode specifically geared to the contemporary Chinese 76 Vol. 17 No. 2 context [that is] constantly inspired by the confrontation between the contemporary life and ancient Chinese philosophy.”3 With unique modes of curation for a commercial gallery, Vitamin Creative Space took on the guise of a contemporary museum with installations that provoked rather than appeased the viewer. By 2013, Zhang Wei was given 91st place in the Power 100 listing by ArtReview for having “a vague vision of a space that would function between a gallery and a not-for-profit organization.”4 What might have seemed “vague” was none other than Vitamin’s unusual hybrid identity as a not-for-profit independent art space that pursues the agendas of a for- profit commercial gallery, as evinced by its active participation in global art fairs at FIAC and Art Basel. According to Zhang Wei and Hu Fung, non-profit and for-profit are not mutually exclusive, as they are demarcated in the West, but can prove to be mutually complimentary and highly practical in China, where alternative and self-organized artistic spaces are not provided institutional or governmental support.5 It is this independent strategy that fostered Vitamin Creative Space to open The Pavilion in Beijing in 2008, which, after several relocations, closed as an exhibition site and currently operates as an administrative office. Mirrored Gardens, Panyu Despite its presence in Beijing, District, Guangzhou, exterior landscaping. Photo: Bebe widespread recognition in Jacobs. international art circles, and the departure of some of the artists to greater urban centres in China and abroad, Vitamin Creative Space has been unable to untangle itself from its close association with the city of Guangzhou. The original experimental third-floor space is no longer extant, but in Mirrored Gardens, Panyu District, Guangzhou, galleries. 2015 it reemerged as the elegant Photo: Julie Chun. and polished Mirrored Gardens in Hualong Agriculture Grand View Garden in Panyu District, about an hour’s drive from Guangzhou’s city centre. The entrance is flanked by walls of reflecting metal that literally evoke and name the environs. A welcoming single-file stone pathway beckons the visitor into the expanse of the lushly verdant and secluded premises. The initial experience of stepping from the pathway onto the wooden deck of Mirrored Gardens is akin to entering not only a discreet secret garden but a secret garden operating according to the high mandates of a self-sustaining twenty- first century ecosystem. With the aesthetics of sophisticated charm that characterize the work of its architect, Sou Fujimoto, the natural landscape of indigenous local trees and flora is carefully balanced by the quietude of a koi fish pond that fronts a picturesque, rustic hut. Situated on the walkway that runs along the inner perimeter are airy galleries of both intimate and Vol. 17 No. 2 77 Left: Mirrored Gardens, Panyu District, Guangzhou, interior looking out. Photo: Bebe Jacobs. Right: Lee Kit, Now it’s all gone wrong, 2008, acrylic on fabric. Photo: Julie Chun. large scale to embody the harmonious ideals of an integrated community. The muted spaces of the galleries, lit by natural light, are relatively austere, as if to grant each painting, sculpture, or installation the autonomy in which to breathe amid the sanctuary of the building’s natural ecology. Despite its removed distance from the city centre, the prestige of Mirrored Gardens has already attracted not only high-profile artists such as Olafur Eliasson, who has been working with Vitamin Creative Space for some years, but also a younger crowd of jet-setting notable art stars such as Firenza Lai, Danh Vo, Ming Wong, and Lee Kit. Canton Gallery While prominent curators and museum directors may make the special pilgrimage to Mirrored Gardens, those resolute in locating emerging talent in Guangzhou will venture to seek out Canton Gallery. Occupying Room 307 on the third floor of the nondescript Jinle office building on 51 Yile Road in Haizu District, Canton Gallery was established in 2015 by artists Hu Xiangqian and Lin Aojie, along with their friend Lin Jingxin who provides financial support. The gallery is uncommon in several respects. First, it is one of the few artist-run galleries in China. Due to the commitment involved in developing their own practice and producing their art, few artists have the time, energy, or sufficient business acumen to professionally operate and manage a commercial art gallery. Second, true to its name, Canton Gallery’s succinctly short mission statement highlights that it is “persistently focusing on Pearl River Delta Area based artists.”6 Arguably, Canton Gallery appears like an iteration of the early Vitamin Creative Space. Drawing on local talent sourced from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and emerging groups of artists from Hong Kong, exhibitions are often presented in collaboration with the presenting artist in the eighty square-metre space. With Hu Xiangqian currently residing in New York, Lin Aojie is overseeing the daily operations of the gallery with a keen consideration that positions the interest of the artist as the gallery’s foremost priority. Such planning and production consumes a significant amount of time for any artist, and since neither Hu Xiangqian nor Lin Aojie exhibit their own works of art at Canton Gallery, it has become a magnet for lesser-known artists. Such support is indispensable to artists striving to bring attention to their works. Yet, what are the criteria for the selective judgement made by the two artists in charge? Lin Aojie answers, “There are numerous young artists being matriculated but no gallery system to support them in Guangzhou, 78 Vol. 17 No. 2 which eventually leads most to enter the professional work force and take on careers such as graphic designers and illustrators. This then leaves only those who are serious enough to pursue a life as artists. Most of us at Canton Gallery know what that difficult path is like because we are all on the same passage in varying degrees and circumstances. You can consider Canton Gallery a platform and a support system for the truly resilient artists. So the selection process is not always about the gallery choosing them but it’s also about the artists demonstrating their earnestness as we work together so that the artists can experiment and expand beyond the scope of what they are able to do by themselves.”7 Accordingly, the list of artists on the Canton Gallery roster is as diverse and wide-ranging as the inhabitants of the city itself. Wu Sibo, Holiday Makers, Born in 1976 in Maoming, Guangdong 2017, oil on canvas, 110 x 90 cm. Courtesy of the artist and province, Wu Sibo has been residing in Canton Gallery, Guangzhou. Guangzhou since 1994, having attended and graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. His paintings are consistently executed in his preferential style of varying shades of grey, as if to represent the interstice between black and white, where reality and imagination blends as ineffable ambiguity. As such, the paintings capture the liminality that lies somewhere between dusk and dawn, affluence and destitution, and even reason and madness.