My great friend Pearl Lam threw one of her best dinner parties ever on Tuesday night, coinciding with the opening of the ShContemporary fair. Her guest list included fair founder Lorenzo Rudolph, Ullens Center director Jerome Sans, collectors Don and Mera Rubell, LA MoCA's Jeremy Strick, New York dealer Jack Tilton, Frieze director Mathew Slotover, Art Basel director Marc Spiegler and Melissa Chiu of Asia Society. I had a wonderful time talking to them all and got a census on what people thought about the shows in Shanghai this week.
Don Rubell said, "it certainly shows that it's a big world out there," but was really unimpressed with the quality of material at the fair. "When I go to a fair in New York or London, I know 90% of the artists. But here I had to judge it just on the quality of what I saw." His first impressions were fairly negative. He and Melissa Chiu roundly dissed the biennial, though I was impressed with the installation which was miraculous given the staff at the Shanghai Art Museum. Jeremy Strick found artists to like, especially Pearl's discovery Qiu Anxiong.
It's a miracle that Pearl has time to organize these parties--she's throwing one every night this week--given that her gallery, Contrasts, also has a booth at the fair. She was there all day, drinking diet Coke and promoting her latest finds, especially Iranian artists. Meanwhile, at night, her energy went on and on, overseeing dinner for 50 as if this was nothing.
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