Tokyo Hyundai sales get off to a slow start, but shows are fighting a long game

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While Thursday’s VIP preview of Tokyo Hyundai’s second edition generated a healthy buzz – with participation from major collectors including Takeo Obayashi, Shunji and Asako Oketa, Yoshiko Mori, Jenny Wang and Simian Wang, Friday’s The atmosphere is rather depressing. art news Take this opportunity to ask the gallery about sales to date.

Two brand galleries with branches in Tokyo reported strong sales. By noon the next day, Pace Gallery, a major gallery new to the art fair that held a soft opening for its new Tokyo space this week, was selling or keeping the Robert Longo they had on display at high prices. All eight works by Robert Longo. (All works will be collected locally.) Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based BLUM, which has branches in New York and Tokyo, sold a painting by Ha Jong-hyun and a work on paper by Yoshitomo Nara for $250,000. $180,000, a painting by Kenjiro Okazaki and ceramics by Kazunori Hamana and Yuji Ueda, each selling for $20,000.

ShugoArts in Tokyo sold two works by Li Jie for about US$30,000. Another Tokyo gallery, Anomaly, has sold out almost all of Yusuke Asai’s works, but the gallery declined to disclose the price.

BLUM founder Tim Blum said art news The show looks much the same as last year, but Taku Sato, director of Parcel, another Tokyo gallery returning, had a less optimistic impression. “Compared to last year, because my expectations were not as high, I think so far [the second edition] Very good,” Sato said. “However, I do feel that there were more people from abroad last year than this year, and there were more institutional curators than last year.” The package displayed a large-scale work by Hashimoto Tomoshige. To date, many of Hashimoto’s smaller works have been sold, with prices ranging from $3,000 to $5,000, and some are in prominent private collections in Japan.

Tokyo Hyundai generally does not have works of art worth more than a million dollars. The $750,000 Longo at the Pace booth seemed to represent a high-end product. most top Co-founder Magnus Renfrew said that, like all Art Assembly shows, works sell for up to $300,000. art news on Friday. (He points out that, in terms of value, while fairs like Art Basel Hong Kong may have more expensive works, most of the works sold tend to be in a similar price range.)

Renfrew cautions against taking any sales results to date as final: Japan has a strong work ethic, so many collectors tend to come to shows on weekends to buy.

“There are a lot of collectors who won’t come during the week but will come on Saturday and Sunday. We know someone who is doing it,” he said. Renfrew said that based on his conversations with participating galleries, “most galleries have had good conversations and many have sold art,” although the results have been mixed and some are still awaiting sales.

One notable collector absent from the festivities was young super-collector Yusaku Maezawa, who, according to dealers, usually likes to confirm his purchases in person. However, his foundation director was one of the first to arrive when the show’s VIP preview opened on Thursday.

While some hope that the current weak yen might encourage foreign collectors to travel, art news Karen K. Ho reported earlier this week that there aren’t many collectors from the United States or Europe. However, this is not really an introduction to the show. Renfrew is more focused on attracting collectors from the area. However, he did say, “In an ideal world, we’d like to be able to reach a wider audience from around the world, and I think there’s potential to do that.”

He acknowledged that Tokyo’s extremely hot and humid weather, scheduled for July, was a hindrance, while spring and autumn tend to be more attractive to U.S. and European visitors. (In any case, the weather isn’t the only obstacle right now. Host your event in a more attractive climate. Paris-based Almine Rech may have a booth in Tokyo, but the gallery opened one in Monaco’s Carré d’Or district branch and is participating in the sixth Monaco Art Week, which will take place from July 2 to 7, exactly the same dates as Tokyo Modern Art Week.

“Our first priority is to make sure we have a really strong Japanese audience for existing collectors, curators and museum directors in the art world, and then through that focus expand the audience within Japan,” Renfrew said. “Then you have regional attendees from the core constituencies within the natural basin, which is China, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. And then we grow from there.

When I mention the recent changes in the Western art market, where speculators are fleeing as prices for hot young artists correct, Renfy says: “We’re really keen on trying to build long-term markets. We’re not interested in ephemera. And then he Pointed out the crazy speculation in Chinese art from 2006 to 2008.

“The lack of a critical curatorial framework to provide validation [for artworks with] The price was high and it appeared on the cover of the auction catalogue. After the adjustment of the Chinese contemporary art market, people are more aware of this. [vacuum]”.

Subsequently, from 2007 to 2012, Renfrew served as the first director of Art HK, which later became Art Basel Hong Kong and subsequently The development of serious institutions such as M+. “The first phase focuses on Hong Kong exhibitions and covers a wide range of areas, requiring the participation of all different groups. [across Asia] Come in and have a market that’s big enough to sustain the scale and ambition that we’ve built there.

Now, Renfrew said: “We are in a new phase of the Asian market, [where] Each of these districts is growing and guaranteed to have its own fair share.

As Renfew’s new crop of art fairs—Tokyo Modern, Art SG Singapore, and Taipei Contemporary—come of age, one question on dealers’ minds is how he can connect them, including by encouraging cross-visiting stand up. He said that while it was crucial for the show to maintain its own identity, “one of the interesting things for us is how we’re able to cross-promote and cross-pollinate, particularly within our VIP network, and I think in fact we” There are three shows a year and we capture data for each one, which means we are rapidly growing our VIP database across Asia.

“ingrained [in each individual location] and broad branches [across the region]means we are in a unique position,” he added.

Renfrew said holding three shows a year allows him to iterate quickly. “We were able to try out some different things and see what worked and what didn’t. We could fail on some things very quickly, so there were some really good lessons learned.

I told Renfrew that a trader once quipped to me that while Renfrew likes to point out the enormous wealth in places like Singapore – i.e. note the number of family investment offices there – that doesn’t mean Rich people there have a habit of buying art. “That’s a valid point,” Renfrew said. “Just because there’s money doesn’t necessarily translate into sales.” His counterargument, however, is that you still need to go where the money is. “No money means no sales.”

fair enough.