Blanc Art Space, the global art hub in Bejing
Located in the National Foreign Cultural Trade Base Beijing on the premises of Beijing Tianzhu Comprehensive Free Trade Zone, Blanc Art Group is a national and foreign cultural trade service platform. Officially opened on 23 October 2021, it is the first art centre with a tax-free policy in Beijing and aims to stoke the country’s cultural sector by providing more opportunities to foreign galleries and art owners, promoting the return of overseas cultural relics and contributing toward cultivating Beijing into a global art hub.
Blanc Art Space comprises two independent buildings with a total construction area of more than eleven thousand square meters with one dedicated to International Antique Art and the other to International Contemporary Art. Building A1, intended for International Antique Art spaces, is the platform and a key component of Beijing’s building of a global cultural relics and artworks trading center. It explores and integrates the business models of storing, transporting, displaying and trading cultural relics and artworks. Building D7, dedicated to International Contemporary Art, opens six floors, hosting up to fourteen International Galleries for permanent and short-term projects.
One of the highly anticipated events during the opening is the “2021 International Antique Art Fair”. The fair brings together nearly 100 antique dealers and galleries from all over the world. This fair also marks the official launch of the international heritage art trade. The exhibition “Magnificent Ripples: Works by Chinese Masters Studied in France” also opened the same day in Building A1. The Chinese masters, Zao Wu-Ki, Chu The-Chun and Wu Guangzhong, to name a few, who studied art in France, will represent their adaptations of French modern art into Chinese art.
The Hong Kong Maritime Museum will also open its exhibition “Sailing: From Ancient Maritime Trade to Modern Maritime Shipping“, marking its first appearance in mainland China. The exhibition will restore the mysterious world of the sea through nearly 130 portions of collections, including ship models, original nautical instruments, antique porcelain and paintings, offering a sense of calmness and wisdom after the vicissitudes of time from which the marks and traces covering the relics of time offer to those lucky enough to see them.
Likewise, on October 23, the Blanc International Contemporary Art Space has opened officially in Building D7 within the Art Blanc Space. 14 world-renowned galleries from nine countries will bring together works of art ranging from oil paintings, prints, installations, sculptures, ceramics and other art mediums at the inaugural exhibition in the Blanc International Art Spaces. Represented Galleries are: White Space, Lisson Gallery, Massimo de Carlo, Woaw Gallery, Almine Rech, Balice Hertling, Clearing, Chantal Crousel, Contemporary Tokyo, Esther Schipper, Lehmann Maupin, Urs Meile, Simon Lee, INK Studio.
In addition, DANGXIA Art Space opens its doors on the sixth floor of Building D7. The chairman of Blanc Art Group, Deng Xiaohong, and three young art collectors established the new and exciting DANGXIA Art Space. Operating as a non-profit organization and aiming to promote and develop global art exchanges, supporting non-mart-oriented young artists and documenting the social and humanistic development in China. The new art space presents its inaugural exhibition, “Praise the Insignificant Dwarf Planets”, on October 23, 2021. The exhibition includes 11 contemporary art pieces by Chinese and foreign artists from the combined DANGXIA Art Space founder’s collections. Artists included in the exhibition are: Ariel Schlesinger, Darren Bader, DIS, He Xiangyu, Luc Tuymans Boyce, Paul Chan, Trevor Yeung, Ugo Rondinone, Wolfgang Tillmans and Zhang Ding.
The works of art presented question trivialities of daily life while counterbalancing broader dimensions by creating a calm and light appearance beyond its tumultuous inner tension. Curated by Yang Zi, the exhibition is open for viewing until April 23, 2022. Every year Blanc Art Space will have 3-4 international museum shows and continue to expand trade, shipping and storage of contemporary and antique art through our platform’s services.
Article Edit by Carla Rossi
