Rare wares

"The store didn't make profits until 2010, and now the revenue from the store provides the primary financial support to UCCA," Xue says.

In ways resembling UCCA's efforts to improve global understanding of Chinese art and promote Chinese artists and designers through practical methods, many other art stores support innovative "art-incubator" workshops.

VA Store - VA stands for "Value of Arts" - opened in December 2012 in Beijing. It gathers works from nearly 100 young Chinese artists, most of whom are students of art schools around the country, including the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.

VA Store deals with woodcut paintings, sculptures and oil paintings and photographs. It focuses on originality and offers a platform for students transitioning from academic study to the art market.

Curator and founder Jin Songmin says all the artworks are priced between 200 yuan ($32) and 10,000 yuan.

Six months ago, they called for artists through micro blogs and published ads at universities and received feverish responses.

"It's hard for art students to find jobs after graduation today," Central Academy of Fine Arts sculpture major Sun Yuqing says.

"We can introduce ourselves to consumers and collectors through such a place." Her ceramic sculpture series, Archive Bag, is the store's top seller and was gone within a week.

China's first private nonprofit museum, Beijing's Today Art Museum, also has a space for an art store that sells limited editions and cutting-edge designers' works.

"I believe China will see an explosive growth in the consumption of art merchandise as Chinese people's educational and income levels improve," Jin Songmin says.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn.

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