Covid is changing the contemporary-art landscape, here and internationally. Much that was taken for granted under the old normal is now problematic. International art fairs once reigned supreme, offering access to art buyers and art collectors around the globe, private and institutional. Our galleries were drawn to them like moths to a flame. But now they are dogged by lockdowns and cancellations, with art-fair goers nervous about all manner of things—unreliable air travel, fear of super-spreader events, border closures, and MIQ.
Prior to Covid, Art Basel Hong Kong was the art fair in our corner of the world, combining the brand power and sex appeal of Europe’s Art Basel with Hong Kong’s growing reputation as the cultural and commercial hub of the Asia-Pacific region. Galleries lined up to participate, taking on costs of $50k to $150k plus, depending on the scale of their presentations. But our galleries have been conspicuously absent at recent editions of Art Basel Hong Kong and other international fairs that have proceeded as live events.
Is Aotearoa’s romance with international art fairs over for the foreseeable future? Has Covid put an end to the pursuit of art-fair show ponies like Basel and Frieze, and their outposts in centres like Los Angeles and Miami, New York and Hong Kong? Or will the mega fairs come back into focus when the pandemic is but a memory and the world is open for business once again? In the meantime, will galleries with an eye to offshore markets turn to regional fairs in Sydney and Melbourne, Singapore and Taiwan?
The signs aren’t promising. The 2022 edition of the Melbourne Art Fair took place in February with just two New Zealand galleries, both with gallery operations in Australia and staff on the ground to run their booths— 1301SW (a new gallery launched in Melbourne this year by Starkwhite and LA’s 1301PE) and Fox Jensen (based in Sydney and Auckland). One thing is for sure: as uncertainty continues to swirl around art fairs, it’s time for new thinking, new initiatives, new ways of doing business.
Enter Oceania Now: Contemporary Art from the Pacific, offering a new way to take contemporary art from here to the international art market. Oceania Now was developed as a joint venture between two New Zealand galleries and a global auction house. Auckland’s Gow Langsford Gallery and Wellington’s Bartley and Company Art gathered thirty-six works by New Zealand and Pacific-nation artists. They shipped them to Paris where they were exhibited by Christie’s, to be auctioned online. It was the first dedicated auction of contemporary art from Oceania. The project was tuned to current international interest in Indigenous and first-nation art, with a line-up of artists including Shane Cotton, Brett Graham, Lyonel Grant, Nikau Hindin, Yuki Kihara, Roger Mortimer, Fiona Pardington, John Pule, Lisa Reihana, Maharangi Tangaroa, Kelcy Taratoa, John Walsh, Robin White, and Cora-Allan Wickliffe.
In the online catalogue, Nicholas Thomas, Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, writes of the artists: ‘They are united by a worldview deeply conscious of ancestral identity, the mana (that is, the spiritual power) of customary art and the ruptures associated with colonialism and indeed colonial violence. They also have a shared ambition—to produce work that is as compelling and challenging as that of artists in any other part of the world, and that also has the capacity to speak from indigenous perspectives across oceans and hemispheres to international audiences.’
So how did the project come about? Oceania Now had its origins in the 2018 Oceania exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Musée du Quai Branly—Jacques Chirac, Paris. That exhibition showcased the art of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Aotearoa New Zealand, with 200 works spanning more than 500 years. Historical artefacts were shown alongside contemporary works by New Zealand and Pacific artists. Visitors to the Royal Academy first encountered a towering installation by the Mata Aho Collective. Other rooms featured works by Mark Adams, Yuki Kihara, Fiona Pardington, Michael Parekōwhai, John Pule and Lisa Reihana.
Victor Teodorescu, from Christie’s African and Oceanic Art department, saw Oceania in London and Paris. It piqued his interest in the contemporary art of Oceania and started him thinking about holding a sale of works in Paris. He floated the idea with New Zealander Imogen Kerr at the Christie’s Hong Kong office, who suggested he get in touch with John Gow at Gow Langsford Gallery. The Gow Langsford team embraced the idea and agreed to underwrite the New Zealand end by crating and freighting the works to Europe. Alison Bartley, director of Bartley and Company Art, was added to the New Zealand team on the recommendation of the current New Zealand ambassador in Paris. She worked with John Gow on the selection of artists and works for the show.
Oceania Now ticks a lot of boxes for artists and galleries looking for new ways to take work to global markets. Gow and Bartley had no difficulty persuading others to join them. Bergman Gallery, McLeavey Gallery, Milford Galleries, and Starkwhite all contributed works by their artists.
The proof will be in the pudding. Will it be a success? And, if so, will the auction become a fixture on the Christie’s calendar or remain a novel one-off? John Gow is cautiously optimistic. ‘The Christie’s machine has incredible reach into the world market’, he says, ‘so this will be a very real test to see how the international market responds to Oceanic art.’ If it works, he and Bartley are up for more.
POSTSCRIPT: The Oceania Now: Contemporary Art from the Pacific auction at Christie’s, Paris, realised total sales of EUR 230,202 (NZD 369,951). John Pule’s painting We Stayed All Day sold for EUR 119,970 (NZD 192,800) against an estimate of EUR 20,000–30,000.
