No longer content with feeding from the Chinese market from afar, Pace Wildenstein have announced that they will open Pace Beijing on August 8, a new space in the heart of Beijing’s gallery district (New York Times). Pace Wildenstein already operates two spaces in Chelsea and one on East 57th Street in New York and this move to Beijing represents a first for an established gallery from New York.
It seems a logical step for the gallery, having represented Chinese hotshots Zhang Huan and Zhang Xiaogang for a year now (Xiaogang recently recording $6 million for one of his “Bloodline Series” portraits at Sotheby’s Hong Kong) and with the Chinese boom showing no signs of letting up.
Designed by Richard Gluckman, whose projects have included the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pace Beijing will take over a 22,000-square-foot space in a former munitions factory, in the vibrant Factory 798 district. The scheduling of this $20 million project sits neatly with the Olympics, a time when Beijing will be under the spotlight. The Factory 798 district is firmly on the sightseeing map.
The gallery have hired local critic and curator Leng Lin, 43, to be president of Pace Beijing. The first offering will be a group exhibition entitled “Encounters,” which will include Zhang Huan and Zhang Xiaogang alongside the likes of Chuck Close, Alex Katz and Lucas Samaras.
