Shanghai tends to look to the future — just glance at the Pudong district’s gleaming sci-fi skyline to start — and that certainly applies to its art scene, as well.
While the 18-year-old M50 district is like Beijing’s 798 Art Zone — former factories full of small, free art galleries and workshops — the past few years have seen the transformation of many former industrial spaces and buildings located along Huangpu River’s West Bund into sprawling, world-class museums and galleries dedicated to some of the edgiest contemporary Chinese and international work.
During a Shanghai visit, art-loving clients should check the English-language Time Out Shanghai for details on current exhibitions (listings include helpful Mandarin addresses to show their taxi driver), while Mandarin readers can download Chinese smartphone app iDaily Museum.
Here are seven of Shanghai’s best contemporary art galleries to get started. One note: Admission can run high at some venues for special exhibitions (around $25).
How Art Museum and How Design Center
This three-floor Pudong museum, which opened last September, features exhibits by major contemporary names. Its current installations are superb: Conceptual artist Leandro Erlich’s “Construction of Reality,” which allows viewers to interact (and take photos) with “Inception”-like scenarios, runs through Oct. 15, and a crossover-themed retrospective of the late “starchitect” Zaha Hadid runs through July 22.
www.howartmuseum.org
Long Museum West Bund
Sprawling and cavernous at some 355,000 square feet, with a great cafe and retail space, the concrete and partially underground Long Museum West Bund opened in 2014 (its older sibling venue, Long Museum Pudong, opened in 2012). I was delighted to visit during the 2017 “James Turrell: Immersive Light” exhibition, featuring many of the American artist’s fully immersive optical illusions and light-based trickery. Expect a balance between current buzz creators (e.g., Yayoi Kusama) and classical masters.
www.thelongmuseum.org
Long Museum West Bund spans some 355,000 square feet and is partially underground.
Credit: 2018 Lawrence FerberM97
Modern photography is the focus at M97, which moved into a converted 1940s Jing’an District factory two years ago. Check out exhibitions by Chinese photographers such as Chi Peng, Jiang Zhi and the provocative Lin Zhipeng, aka No. 223. Photography fans should also not miss West Bund’s Shanghai Center of Photography.
www.m97gallery.com
www.scop.org.cn
Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai
A greenhouse reconceived as a multilevel gallery within the lush and lively People’s Park, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) Shanghai takes a particular lean toward multimedia work and installations. The 6th Animamix Biennale—Ballade, running through Aug. 28, is especially future-forward, with science-inspired animation, comics, virtual reality and games. Also worth a visit is the MoCA Pavilion space, added in 2015 by the park’s Gate 7, for work by emerging artists.
www.mocashanghai.org
Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai focuses on multimedia work and installations.
Credit: 2018 Lawrence FerberRockbund Art Museum
Housed in a 1930s art deco building near The Bund, the six-floor Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) hosts some of the quirkiest, most playful work from new and well-known Chinese artists.
www.rockbundartmuseum.org
ShanghArt Shanghai
One of China’s oldest art galleries, with sister spaces in Singapore and Beijing, ShanghArt M50 opened this West Bund sibling in November 2016. Designed to resemble stacked shipping containers, ShanghArt Shanghai features two floors for exhibitions, an art book library and a rooftop terrace. Check out installations, sculptures and paintings by Xu Zhen through July 26.
www.shanghart.com
Yuz Museum
Opened in May 2014, this former Shanghai Longhua Airport hangar presents seriously buzz-worthy names and exhibitions within a massive, nearly 100,000-square-foot space. Exhibitions have included urban pop artist Kaws, Qin Yifeng and Andy Warhol. Through Oct. 14, guest can walk amongst raindrops in the immersive, famed Rain Room.
www.yuzmshanghai.org
