The Vanguard Gallery is dedicated to the promotion of a young generation of Asian artists and located in one of the most famous arty places in Shanghai: M50. Among the cluster of unceasingly changing galleries and studios, the Vanguard Gallery belongs to the “seniors” for it dates back to 2004 when Lise Li decided to plunge herself into the art adventure.
Although located in China, the Vanguard Gallery is always eager to create new connections and thus enhances its role as an international platform for Asian artists. This is why Lise likes to participate in many art fairs around the world, notably the brand new ART13 London where I had the opportunity to have a captivating conversation with her.
Marine Cabos: Firstly please tell me more about you. How did you come up with the idea to launch the Vanguard Gallery?
Lise Li: My major was in finance: I originally worked in a bank in South China. But after six years I realized this was not the life I wanted to live; so I quit my job. Then I met some artists who taught painting to earn enough money to launch a gallery. At that time I did not know what I could do and I liked painting so I learned painting with them. They finally opened a gallery and I helped them a little. Finally I moved back to Shanghai and I decided to try to open my own gallery.
MC: This the first edition of Art13 London, thus far how do you find this new art fair and the art market atmosphere in London?
LL: I love it, I feel this fair is very interesting. I came to London for another fair a few years ago, but I really have the impression that this time the organisers worked really professionally. For example during the opening there were many visitors, art lovers, collectors, and so on. So in other words Art13 London is a good platform that enables us to meet them and promote the art.
MC: Vanguard Gallery participates quite often to International Art Fairs, which one would you say was the most fruitful?
LL: Actually I like London’s art fairs. There are people from many different countries gathered here, and in fact many of our clients and friends are based in Europe. So London represents a good place for us to promote the artists’ works. In Asia we have also participated in several art fairs, such as Art Stage {in Singapore} where we went twice. It is totally different from London especially because the visitors are mainly coming from South East Asian countries, all the galleries are coming from there as well, but it is a good opportunity to know them better. To me they represent different experiences.
MC: In your booth you have eleven paintings and two photographs. How easy is it to sell contemporary photography? What is the current state of the Chinese photography market?
LL: As you know we are not specialised in photography but this is changing, I very much like this medium. Today we work with four photographers: two are Japanese based in Paris and two are Chinese and we learned a lot from our collaboration with them.
I believe photography is not easy to promote in Asia because collectors in general prefer to buy paintings, notably oil paintings, they still have a traditional way of thinking, besides oil painting is quite easy to preserve. One of the reasons why collectors are reluctant to buy photograph is because in the South – for instance in cities such as Hong Kong, Taipei, and so forth – the climate is very humid so photographs tend to stick together if they are not well protected. I think this is a major issue that constrains the photography art market in Asia.
Another reason is that collectors tend to think photograph can be printed endlessly. They do not trust the edition of a finite number of prints, photography is still considered commercial rather than artistic . Something remains to be done to change collectors’ ideas about photography. But in the end I would say that for us it is not too bad.
MC: On the occasion of Art13 London, you decided to present several artists including the photographer Shen Xuezhe. Why have you chosen this artist?
LL: There are mixt criteria when choosing an artist. Having a good story to tell is one thing, then how you can use this story is also very important. An interesting artist is able to transform the content and express something deep through his artwork, which ultimately has an impact on the audience.
Shen Xuezhe is a new artist with whom we just started to work and his photographs have already attracted a lot of attention not only in Shanghai but also here. Very important collectors from Europe are really interested in buying his artworks.
I have chosen him because a lot of feelings and stories lay behind these apparently simple landscapes and once the people know more about the stories they are generally impressed by such representations.
MC: Would you mind telling me what are these stories then?
LL: The story is about the artist himself: he is Korean-Chinese, his grandparents fled North Korea and ended up in China during the Second World War. They settled down in a small village near the border river between China and North Korea . It would be easy to make parallel with political issues, but he claims these landscapes have little to do with politics; instead they are filled with emotions and personal concerns. He is separated from parts of his family since his aunt and uncle still live in North Korea, but they cannot meet nor communicate. Hence he took a series of photographs of the famous river that separates the two countries. In the end the landscapes symbolize his melancholic gaze towards North Korea, towards his family. None of them is neutral, when you look at them you can feel very clearly the implied emotions.
In some photographs, the river seems narrow but it is actually impossible to cross. He told me once he used to play in his childhood with other children in this very river but nowadays it would be impossible to do so because of the Chinese-Korean Border Fence. This is why you can see North Korea soldiers in some photographs. He even admitted that taking such photographs was quite dangerous so in general he would first spend a lot of time scouting location before shooting very quickly. In another photograph you can see food and a bottle of wine on the ground of the riverbank, it is because at that time someone he knew died in North Korea since he was not allowed to go there, it was the only wayto pay tribute to this person.
The whole story is very sad and linked to separation and personal stories; all these things encouraged him to create this series. The general appearance of the photographs seems a little romantic, as if they were pure representations of landscape for their own sake, but once you know the story it changes the way you look at them, you feel the profound sadness.
MC: You are holding a current photographic exhibition entitled Mountain in sight, Spirit in Heart in Shanghai, in which you show the artworks of two young artists: Shen Xuezhe and Di Jinjun. Why did you decide to organise this exhibition?
LL: It is the first time we set up a show for two people originally not involved in contemporary art. I do not know how it is in Europe, but in China photographers and contemporary artists constitute two different worlds, only a few are both photographer and artist. Thus I have deliberately set up a show of photographers because I wanted people to see other types of artworks. But after the opening of the exhibition I thought that Shen Xuezhe was closer to contemporary art than Di Jinjun, even though Shen does not consider himself a contemporary artist. To me Di Jinjun’s photographs are very technical and have a documentary approach. But one should keep in mind that there is not necessary a story behind a photograph, and if so it has to be natural. Off course the main purpose of setting up such an exhibition was to represent new photographers in the gallery.
MC: What are your future projects?
LL: In the coming years we are hoping to show more young artists creating various types of artworks. And we will continue to look for new photographers.
Marine Cabos
Vanguard Gallery
Room 204 Building. 4A
50 Moganshan Road
Shanghai, China
+86 21 62993523
