Chen I-chun’s (陳依純) mother took one look at her painting and concluded that her daughter must be possessed. Fearful that the somber work depicting a ghoulish scene would bring her family bad luck, she burned it.
“She then sent me off to the temple to see ... a spirit medium,” said Chen, 31. “[She] didn’t really understand my work at the time because it was a little weird.”
An extreme example, perhaps, of the difficulties young artists face in Taiwan.
Besides placating parents who want their children to enter stable professions such as teaching or medicine, artists must contend with a competitive market that is difficult to understand, much less penetrate.
Enter Made in Taiwan — Young Art Discovery, a competition begun in 2008 and sponsored by the Council of Cultural Affairs and the Art Galleries Association ROC as part of Art Taipei, Taiwan’s largest art fair. The five-day fair, which 110 galleries are attending this year, begins Friday.
Winners of Young Art Discovery — this year eight were chosen from 202 submissions — are provided with their own booth at Art Taipei as well as a grant of NT$50,000 each for expenses. Not only does the competition broaden Art Taipei’s scope, it draws attention to young talent — entrants have to be Taiwan nationals aged under 35 and cannot be represented by a gallery. The publicity helps, too.
“I have gotten a lot of coverage from magazines and newspapers,” said Hsu Wei-hui (徐薇蕙), one of this year’s eight winning artists. “People [have] started to know about me and my work.”
Chou Chu-wang (周珠旺), another winner, agrees. “It’s a huge fair and we artists can get a lot of exposure,” he said.
But Young Art Discovery isn’t just about giving talented young artists a taste of the big time. It is also exposes them to the inner workings of the art market. To facilitate this, organizers last year drafted in art professionals to act as agents for the artists. The move was also a response to galleries’ complaints that artists were selling directly to buyers.
All four agents, each one assigned to two artists, have extensive experience in Taiwan’s art market.
Young Art Discovery’s organizers cover the agents’ fees (they don’t take the 50 percent commission typically charged by galleries), though artists are expected to donate 20 percent of sales to the National Culture and Arts Foundation (國家文化藝術基金會) to help support other new artists.
Though some might balk at the level of control galleries exert over the fair, for Hsu the agents are a boon.
“Being an artist is not just making art. There are a lot of detailed things to do, such as pricing and dealing with contracts. [Agents] ... can help with that,” Hsu said.
Having just returned from a five-year stint studying in the US, the 31-year-old Hsu said she was unfamiliar with Taiwan’s art scene, particularly buyer interest in installation art, the medium she works in.
After a few minutes with the agent, however, she said she understood the market much better.
With pricing, however, artists don’t always agree with the agents’ recommendations.
“The agent’s perspective and the artist’s perspective are different,” said Shen Bo-cheng (沈柏丞), a 24-year old installation artist.
“Artists believe that their work is superlative,” he said with a grin.
When asked if he would stick to his guns, he said, “We’ll have to find some compromise.”
Though agents provide a dose of reality, the price set remains the discretion of the artists.
In previous editions, Young Art Discovery judges were teachers, art critics or journalists. This year, for the first time, gallerists have become part of the adjudication process.
Though some fear that the market is exerting too much of an influence on how artists create and price their work, all six of the participating artists I asked about the process seemed upbeat.
Chen, having resisted pressure to “be content to find a husband,” said that little will influence the direction she takes her art.
“I don’t know what the future holds, but I will still create regardless of what happens,” she said.
And her mother now accepts her chosen career.
“She even prays at the temple on my behalf,” Chen said.
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