Gallery Weekend Beijing Reveals 10th Anniversary Programme

Gallery Weekend Beijing returns for its 10th anniversary edition from 22 to 31 May, bringing together 30 galleries and 10 non-profit institutions from across the Chinese capital, alongside the return of its space for invited international galleries, the Visiting Sector.

The event was launched in 2017 and initially modelled on Berlin’s Gallery Weekend—a reference point that reflected the experience of then-director Thomas Eller, a German artist and writer based in Beijing at the time. From its early editions, the Beijing event adopted a similar structure with a selection committee, a comparable visual identity, and the stated ambition of positioning the city within an international circuit of contemporary art events. Scheduled in mid-March, it also aimed to function as a stopover for international visitors travelling onward to Art Basel Hong Kong later the same month.

“Ten years ago, our goal was to build a professional and internationally oriented platform that could foster dialogue while increasing visibility for galleries and artists,” Aria Yang, director of Gallery Weekend Beijing, told Ocula.

At this time, before fairs ART021 and Dangdai had fully consolidated their positions in the capital, Beijing—despite being China’s political and cultural centre—still lacked a major event dedicated specifically to contemporary art.

The gallery weekend has since grown considerably. What began as a relatively independent initiative with 14 galleries and four museums has expanded into a city-wide programme centred around the 798 Art District, now organised by the state-owned 798 Art Zone.

“Gallery Weekend Beijing has gradually become a bridge between galleries, institutions, practitioners, and the public,” Yang said. “It has helped position Beijing within a broader international conversation around contemporary art.”

Across its 10th edition, the event continues to operate through a multi-sector structure, with programming distributed across gallery spaces and institutional venues across Beijing. The 798 Art District remains a central site for the programme.

Within this structure, White Space has returned to 798 after periods in Caochangdi and the Beijing Free Trade Zone, presenting Wang Tuo’s solo exhibition Intensity in Ten Cities, which features the artist’s latest film examining China’s collective past through historical buildings. White Space will also present a new solo presentation by Ouyang Chun. Titled Nirvana, the gallery has described the show as an embrace of “the struggle, instinct, and traces of labor embedded in the creative process”.

Institutional programming this year includes UCCA Center for Contemporary Art’s survey of Duan Jianyu, which traces the Guangzhou-based painter’s practice through works that reference and reinterpret both Chinese and Western art histories.

The Visiting Sector, which previously brought together galleries such as Chantal Crousel, Gladstone, and Sprüth Magers, returns after a brief absence in 2025. This year’s participants include BANK, Capsule, Each Modern, and Axel Vervoordt Gallery.

Alongside this, the Up & Coming section exhibition, curated by Yang Zi, takes place in a former factory building, bringing together younger artists in a more provisional setting and functioning as a counterpoint to the larger institutional and commercial presentations during the week.