ART021 and West Bund Art & Design Receipts 2024

West Bund Art & Design 2025 13–16 November 2025

‘The market is still there!’ declared Lorenz Helbling, founder of ShanghART, during Shanghai art week. ShanghART is one of the few galleries still juggling both ART021 and West Bund Art & Design. Helbling noted a markedly more positive atmosphere compared to 2023.

At ART021, ShanghART sold Yu Youhan‘s Abstract 2016 #4 (2016) for over U.S. $700,000. Most of the works in the gallery’s booth were sold by the end of the VIP preview.

Capsule Shanghai‘s founder Enrico Polato, who has been a key player in the city’s art scene since 2016 and took part in West Bund Art & Design this year, agreed.

‘People are coming back,’ said the Italian gallerist, pointing to a resurgence of collectors ‘not only from China, but from other parts of the world.’

At West Bund Art & Design, which this year took place in warehouse buildings on either side of Longteng Avenue, blue chip galleries doubled down on showstoppers. The fair’s five halls burst with oversized canvases in eye-popping hues.

Both Thaddaeus Ropac and White Cube chose to centre monumental works by Georg Baselitz. White Cube also showed a 1988 monochrome painting by Lee Ufan, which sold for $1 million.

Hauser & Wirth sold works including Philip Guston‘s Untitled (Red and Black Book) (1969) for $1 million and Angel Otero‘s Red Mangrove (2024) for $285,000.

‘On opening day we’ve experienced a resilient Chinese art market in which true quality and great relationships prevail,’ said Lihsin Tsai, a senior director at Hauser & Wirth.

Among Pace Gallery‘s sales highlights were works by Mika Tajima, Qiu Xiaofei, and one from Yin Xiuzhen‘s ‘Wall Instrument’ series, made from porcelain and used clothing, that sold for $110,000. Yin has just opened a solo exhibition at the Power Station of Art featuring massive installations.

Over at ART021—which again took place at the palatial Shanghai Exhibition Center—galleries didn’t report any sold out booths on the day of the VIP preview, but said they received a robust number of inquiries.

David Zwirner, which has participated in ART021 for over a decade, sold works by Wolfgang Tillmans, Scott Kahn, Harold Ancart, and Luc Tuymans, whose exhibition opens this week at UCCA in Beijing.

Beijing Commune sold a new painting by 1977-born, Beijing-based artist Liang Yuanwei for over $300,000. The gallery had a strong presence during the art week, with three of its artists—Yan Bing, Yin Xiuzhen, and Xie Molin—presenting in institutional exhibitions across the city.

Almine Rech‘s Pop Art-themed booth saw strong sales momentum, among which, they said, ’Tom Wesselmann‘s works drew particular collector interest’. With several works snapped up during pre-sales and preview periods, the presentation ‘met expected sales figures’, according to the gallery.

Galerie Chantal Crousel opted for a minimalist approach, showcasing Nick Mauss‘s gestural, textured stoneware pieces in an understated booth.

Carlos/Ishikawa presented a solo booth of large paintings by Issy Wood, who is exhibiting more intimate paintings at TANK Shanghai, one of the city’s leading art institutions.

Offering a rest from the competing colours of the fair’s many paintings was New Light (2022), Shen Xin‘s captivating two-channel video installation exploring her affinities with Tibet.

It was accompanied by Zhang Peili‘s One-Thousandth of a Second to One Second (1995), where 22 photographs, draped in tracing paper, danced in the breeze of an old fan. —[O]

Main image: Hauser & Wirth, West Bund Art & Design 2024, Shanghai (7–10 November 2024). Courtesy the artists / estates and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: JJYPHOTO.