Chengdu prepares to host modern art fair next year

Huang Yu, art collector and co-founder of Art Chengdu. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Sichuan province's capital, Chengdu, will hold its first international contemporary art fair, Art Chengdu, in April.

It's organized by a group of Chinese in their 30s.

The fair from April 28 to May 2 will be the first of its kind in southwestern China, where a large number of collectors and artists live.

About 30 galleries will be invited to attend, including 10 from outside China.

"The size of Art Chengdu will be small (at first), but we hope it will attract young collectors and art lovers," says Huang Zai, co-founder of the fair.

A Chengdu native, Huang says Chengdu had little regular art activity, although private museums and galleries have mushroomed in recent years.

Her partner, Huang Yu, came up with the idea of holding an art fair in Chengdu in June, after he held a show displaying his collection of contemporary Chinese art, featuring works by 66 artists, at a local museum.

Huang Yu is regarded by media as a typical young Chinese collector born in the 1980s.

The 36-year-old was awarded Collector of the Year 2016 by Chinese art magazine HiArt, along with Liu Yiqian, who offered a record price of $170 million for Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani's oil painting in 2015.

"My friends and I hope we have the chance to buy good art in our hometown," says Huang Yu, who flies to art fairs across the world every year for his collection, which mainly features videos and conceptual art.

Many of his friends, including some who're in their 20s, are collectors of contemporary Chinese art.