Spotlight: fair director Alexander Montague-Sparey
WITH just one week to go until the inaugural fair, Photo Shanghai looks forward to presenting some of the world’s most eminent photography galleries. Ahead of the fair, we spoke with fair director Alexander Montague-Sparey and asked him to share more of his own background and his aspirations for the fair’s prominence in the international art market.
What has been the biggest challenge of Photo Shanghai?
As the director of the fair, it has been my job to sign up the right galleries, make sure they bring good and relevant material and to market the product to an international audience. It’s one thing getting the right galleries on board — you then have to make sure they are going to sell the work to a passionate collector base. The response from both ends has been tremendous. People are really catching on to the compelling idea of selling international household names and collectable emerging work on China’s mainland.
What are your aspirations for the fair in the long term?
For Shanghai to become synonymous with the best fine art photography there is — and not just that — but a clever and interesting edit of it, presented beautifully. For it to become the destination city in the global East — for the medium. There is nothing worse than fairs with no quality control. If a work isn’t good and collectable, it shouldn’t go on the wall. I see the fair like a big museum show. Quality and freshness are therefore key.
How do you draw in the collectors?
We have a very connected, energetic and dedicated VIP relations team that I work with locally and internationally. I am also co-hosting a forum with ICP curator Christopher Phillips for 30 international handpicked collectors two days prior to the VIP opening.
What, in your view, are the key ingredients to the success and longevity of Photo Shanghai?
To keep the galleries happy and to keep the collectors excited. For both of those things to happen, we need the event to run very smoothly (I have an excellent event director) and for the work which is being brought to stand out. So many people from the US and Europe have already booked their flights to witness what we have achieved. We need to make sure they leave feeling energized and elated.
Can you tell us a little bit more about what will be on display, or is it all a secret?
My aim with the fair was always to span the medium through the decades and present a mixture of iconic work alongside robust emerging work. To have people feel a ‘wow’ factor, but then to also educate the greener collectors. That is key in an emerging economic powerhouse like China. I want to celebrate the East and the West at the highest level, while keeping it ‘general’ in year one. There will literally be hundreds of artists on offer, but expect to see a diversity as wide as Andre Kertesz and Henri Cartier-Bresson to Yang Fudong and Boomoon via Herb Ritts and Patrick Demarchelier.
What will year two look like?
My aim for year two is for the fair to be even more international in flavor (we have 18 cities represented from 15 different countries in year one). We capped at 50 galleries this year to keep it digestible and quality-controlled. Next year my aim is to introduce up to 70 galleries to a wider audience. Our talks and exhibitions program will also be an even more crucial part of the program.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
- RSS
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证:沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证:31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证:0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证:沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证:沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.