As the opening of the Art Taipei 30th edition, having attended for three days, I've heard a lot of sharing from people around me. Foreign collectors and galleries all recognize the importance of regional culture. And before coming to Taiwan, what they often hear is that Taiwanese collectors prefer "cute" artworks. I found it amusing to hear haha. However, it's true in recent years, there have also been quite a few young junior collectors. And young collectors would prefer small art pieces and when we live in the social media era, artwork collection is also a trendy thing to do. Taiwan itself is heavily influenced by Japan. Therefore it comes to the conclusion that Taiwanese collectors prefer cute artwork to any other Renaissance, impressionism, abstract expressionism, etc, they prefer contemporary Japanese cute and colorful works.
When discussing the influence of this culture on Taiwan, it's true that Taiwanese youth and pop culture are significantly influenced by Japanese media, especially "Anime cute" which is a fitting term to describe a specific subset of this aesthetic.
However, from this year's Taipei Art Fair, we can observe that the exhibition has introduced many new ideas, and artists responding to the current development of the Taiwanese art market. As mentioned by the Gallery Association's Chairman, Zhang Yiqun, during the opening press conference, "In addition to continuously pushing domestic gallery industry, we aim to push Oriental art onto the international stage and lead our association members in collectively thinking about the future direction of the local industry."
It is noticeable that ART TAIPEI 2023 places greater emphasis on promoting art. The new generation of collectors, while embracing Western contemporary art also looks back at the profound cultural and aesthetic heritage of the East. On the other hand, ART TAIPEI continues to promote exchanges in the Southeast Asian art industry. This year, the fair collaborates with Tom Tandio, the Director of the ART JAKARTA art fair, as well as the Honorary Advisor to the Taipei International Art Fair, to curate exhibitions from five renowned Southeast Asian galleries. It also invites a prominent Indonesian collector delegation to Taiwan for a collective endeavor, expanding the international collector base.
The development of these new initiatives showcases the preparations of the Taipei Art Fair as it celebrates its 30th anniversary. The fair is laying a solid foundation for the future of Taiwan's arts and gallery industry. With the accumulation of many milestones, we hope that as ART TAIPEI reaches its 40th year, it will stand firm and resilient, not easily influenced by market and economic fluctuations. Instead, it will establish itself in the world, firmly securing ART TAIPEI's position in the Asia-Pacific region and the international art market.
