China’s economic slowdown and a wave of museum closures in the country have cast a pall over its art market. But look past the media headlines and you’ll still discover industry optimism as Shanghai Art Week opens today and runs until 15 November. “We’re still quite positive about this year’s fair because we have 149 participating galleries,” says Bao Yifeng, co-founder of art fair Art021. “It’s quite a good list compared with events in other countries.”

The recent profusion of Asian art fairs has filled the global culture calendar. The last couple of months in 2026 include Art Jakarta, Art Week Tokyo and Art Collaboration Kyoto. And if that’s not crowded enough, Paris Photo overlaps with Art Mumbai, Art021 and West Bund Art & Design – Shanghai Art Week’s other marquee fair – while the inaugural Frieze Abu Dhabi opens its doors the week after. But the staying presence of multiple blue-chip galleries – including Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, White Cube and Esther Schipper – in the two Shanghai events underscores the city’s continued draw. China, after all, remains the third-largest art market in the world, according to the 2026 Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report.

Equally buoyant is Christie’s. A slate of impressive artworks and luxury items are going under the hammer this week in Shanghai, including masterpieces by Pablo Picasso and Yayoi Kusama, as well as modernist classics by Chinese painters such as Zao Wou-ki. “These lots with attractive estimates address the broadening interest and growing demand of seasoned and new collectors,” says Rebecca Yang, chairman of Christie’s China. “Our global sales saw an increasing number of fresh buyers from China, highlighting the immense potential of this market.”

This emergent cohort of Chinese collectors is fast becoming an influential force in Shanghai, not only because of its spending power but also because of its sustained investment in the creative scene. Art philanthropist and cultural entrepreneur Cherry Xu, who began collecting during the coronavirus pandemic, is one such figure. Trained in fashion design before earning a fine-art degree in the US, she opened independent art space Cheruby last year to explore the intersection of both disciplines through artist residencies and exhibitions.

Thai artist Tanat Teeradakorn’s two-month residency at Cheruby’s 1930s heritage building in the Jing’an district will culminate in his first institutional solo exhibition in China, which will open during Shanghai Art Week. Guided by an interest in how entertainment shapes our understanding of place and its complex histories, Teeradakorn presents Memory Threshold: Chaos Resonance, a mind-bending film that he describes as “a staged performance made for the camera.” Coded choreography, elaborate costumes and electric visual effects come together to demonstrate how cultural and political values are transmitted through consumer-friendly experiences. Going one step further with this installation, he has crafted merchandise – such as T-shirts, scarves and keychains – adding a tactile dimension to Cheruby’s fresh, cross-disciplinary approach.

For Cheruby director Joni Zhu, it is precisely this courage to colour outside the lines that makes Shanghai’s art scene special, perhaps even irreplaceable. “Not all Chinese institutions follow established Western models centred around a permanent collection, which enables us to continually experiment and reinvent,” she tells Monocle. X Zhu-Nowell, Rockbund Art Museum’s executive director and chief curator, shares Zhu’s sentiment. “We are a non-collecting museum, so we can direct significant resources towards research and experimentation, sometimes supporting projects whose eventual forms aren’t fully anticipated at the outset,” says Zhu-Nowell. “There are risks involved but I think it’s important for an institution to create the conditions for artists to take those kinds of risks and pursue ideas that might otherwise be difficult to realise,” they add.

Since taking the helm as executive director and chief curator in January 2025, Zhu-Nowell has redrawn the boundaries with exhibitions that foster dialogue across less familiar geographies and spotlight the historically marginalised. Their mission is clearly on display at Rockbund Art Museum’s latest shows – non-binary Brazilian artist Jota Mombaça’s debut solo exhibition in Asia, Stuck in Movement (In the Tide), and Hong Kong artist Wong Kit Yi’s first institutional solo presentation featuring two installations, Bank-a-oke and Tem-ple-oke – which both explore the shifting boundaries of voice and identity.

It’s a fitting contemplation for an art market at a crossroads, where nations, fairs and museums are jostling to make their mark. Yet Zhu-Nowell believes that Shanghai’s place on the world stage has never been in question. “The city has a historical and intellectual complexity that is irreducible to its contemporary art-market identity,” they say. “Its unique potential lies in its capacity to develop artistic conversations, rather than provide another destination on the international art calendar. Shanghai doesn’t need another museum or fair to demonstrate that it is a global cultural capital. The more interesting question is how it is contributing to conversations taking place in the world.”

Three Shanghai museums to visit

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