West Bund Art & Design opened yesterday (Nov. 7), in Shanghai’s arty West Bund, alongside the Art021 art fair and several exhibitions at museums and galleries across the city. Hall A of West Bund Art & Design quickly became crowded when the doors opened at 1 p.m., and attendees appeared engaged, asking for prices, conversing with the gallerists and displaying a sophisticated awareness of the value of the international works on view. Before the fair opened, several dealers told Observer they were hopeful that this year would be better than 2023’s catastrophic edition, as the Chinese market is slowly returning in force after a significant dip. Still, sales were reportedly slow to materialize throughout the day, and few exhibitors were willing to share feedback once the preview closed.

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Near the entrance, Gagosian’s booth presented the work of American artist Cameron Welch, who also has work on view at their Hong Kong space following his introduction at West Bund. The gallery also showcased various artists exploring different aspects of abstraction, including Derrick Adams, Maurizio Cattelan, Urs Fischer, Helen Frankenthaler, Cy Gavin, Simon Hantaï, Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami, Oscar Murillo, Albert Oehlen, Nam June Paik, David Reed, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, Mary Weatherford, Stanley Whitney and Zeng Fanzhi. Blue-chip names were also featured at Timothy Taylor’s booth across from Gagosian, which showed works by Eddie Martinez, Alex Katz, Kiki Smith, Tàpies and Daniel Crews Chubb, who is the subject of an extensive solo exhibition at the Long Museum.

Sadie Coles HQ used this fair as an opportunity to introduce the artists they aim to promote in the region, including Georgia Gardner Gray, who is set to have a show in the city next year. Paintings and drawings by Katia Seib and Japanese artist Yu Nishimura—who currently has an exhibition at the gallery’s London location—were already sold out before the fair opened. Also displayed in the booth were miniature sculptures by Chinese artist Nabuqi, known for her intimate and mesmerizing landscapes; born in the 1980s, Nabuqi recently exhibited at Myuz Beijing and was also included in the “China: A new generation of artists” show at Centre Pompidou (which was facilitated by the Centre Pompidou × West Bund Museum Project partnership).

Perrotin’s booth brought blue-chip names popular in the region, including new works by Korean artist Lee Bae and historical pieces by Matthieu and Lynn Chadwick, who had a show open at the gallery’s Paris location during Art Basel Paris.

MASSIMODECARLO, which operates two spaces in Asia between Beijing and Hong Kong, reported several early sales at the close of the first day, incliding Wang You’s 城堡 Act III The Castle Act III, 2024, priced at $35,000; Bodu........

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