Director of Gallery Weekend Beijing, Amber Wang sits down with Tatler to talk about the highlights of this year's Gallery Weekend Beijing and putting Beijing as an art destination on the map
Gallery Weekend Beijing (GWBJ) is steadily making its presence bigger with each edition. The culturally cohesive platform bundles and shares cutting-edge contemporary art in Beijing. During the week-long event, galleries and institutions work closely alongside each other to present the most striking exhibitions of the year to a national and international audience. GWBJ is seeking to eliminate creative limits and connect Beijing's artistic potential to other global contemporary art hubs through an attractive framework programme that includes talks, panel discussions, workshops and more.
Leading the charge is GWBJ's director Amber Wang, who rolled up her sleeves in 2017 and began developing the platform into a fixture of the Chinese contemporary art world. Under Wang's leadership, GWBJ embraced innovative programming while refinings its operational model, working with the most prestigious galleries and institutions from Beijing for the first time. Ahead of the upcoming fifth edition of GWBJ from April 27, Tatler talks to Wang about this year's highlights and how they're helping to re-energise Beijing's art scene.
What makes the upcoming 5th edition of Gallery Weekend Beijing different from the previous ones?
While Gallery Weekend Beijing (GWBJ) still adheres to its core mission of providing the top art collectors, art professionals and art enthusiasts a platform for viewing the best contemporary art, we have extended the digital and geographical scopes of this year’s edition. In addition to our renovated app, website, and online exhibition viewing program, the 2021 Visiting Sector also welcomes galleries from Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hong Kong, London, New York and Paris, who will participate in GWBJ for the first time.
What are some notable highlights that we can look forward to?
For this the fifth year of GWBJ, the Main Sector is pleased to feature first-time participants including Beijing’s Inside-Out Art Museum, Espace Louis Vuitton Beijing, Hua International and Shixiang Space, among other participants. To point out a few, UCCA is featuring Cao Fei’s first and biggest solo exhibition in Asia, Cao Fei: Staging the Era. The renowned artist Wang Jian Wei’s solo exhibition Always being, but not the whole at Long March is also a must-see, as well as Fang Li Jun’s solo exhibition at Triumph Gallery.
Wang Guang Le’s Waves presented at Beijing Commune, Yuan Yunsheng’s Regeneration at Platform China Contemporary Art Institution and Liu Huanzhang’s solo sculpture exhibition In the World at Star Gallery are all remarkable highlights that cannot be missed. The Visiting Sector, as I mentioned previously, is established to strengthen the cultural exchange between China’s art scene and those in other regions. The Up&Coming Sector is specifically presented in the form of a panel discussion that brings together a wide range of guest speakers with different perspectives to discuss the future of contemporary art. In addition to these programs, we have also expanded our digital offer through our updated mobile app that gives viewers access to view exhibitions through audiovisual services.
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