The 6th edition of SH Contemporary is now approaching; it will be open to the public from September 7th to 9th - after an invitation-only vernissage for collectors and the media on Thursday September 6th.

It will feature 90 top galleries from 19 countries; from Greater China (50%), the Asia Pacific and the Middle East (25%), Europe and the U.S. (25%), with sections dedicated to emerging galleries and to galleries specializing in photography and video.

Among the participating galleries are: Aike-Dellarco (Shanghai), Around Space (Shanghai), Aura (Beijing), Beijing Commune, Boers Li (Beijing), Chi-wen (Taipei), Eigen+Art (Berlin and Leipzig), Exhibit 320 (Delhi), Galleria Continua (San Gimignano, Beijing, Le Moulin), Gallery 18 (Shanghai), Greenaway (Adelaide, Australia), Iberia Center for Contemporary Art (Shanghai), James Cohan (New York and Shanghai), Leo Xu (Shanghai), M97 (Shanghai), Massimo De Carlo (Milan and London), Mitzuma & One (Tokyo and Beijing), Pearl Lam Galleries (Shanghai and Hong Kong), Schuebbe Projects (Dusserldorf), Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shangart (Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore), Shugoarts (Tokyo), Star (Beijing), Stills (Paddington, Australia), Thomas Erben (New York), Tina Keng and TKG+ (Taipei), Triumph Art Space (Beijing), Urs Meile (Beijing and Lucerne), XVA (Dubai)

In addition to the quality and diversity of its exhibitors, SH Contemporary stands out among Chinese and Asian fairs for its special projects: actual exhibitions, video and photography projects, and site-specific and monumental artworks punctuating the venue of the fair. Mostly commissioned for, and displayed at SH Contemporary for the the first time.

SH Contemporary is the place where the latest developments in Chinese and Asia Pacific visual arts take front and center.

This edition of the fair inaugurates SH Contemporary Focus, an overview dedicated every year to a different country. We begin with India, with newly commissioned projects and important works by some of the more sought after Indian artists working across different media: Rohini Devasher, Shilpa Gupta, Aaditi Joshi, Manish Nai, Gyan Panchal, Raqs Media Collective.

The India Focus was curated by Diana Campbell and supported by the Creative India Foundation.

New commissions by Aaditi Joshi, Shilpa Gupta, and Raqs Media Collective will debut at the fair and were specifically made for the audience in Shanghai.

SH Contemporary Projects 2012 - curated for the second consecutive year by curatorial collective Arthub Asia (Davide Quadrio, Defne Ayas and Qiu Zhijie - arthubasia.org) with the key contribution of a group of guest curators - is composed of 5 different parts:

1. Now Ink

Initiated in 2011, Now Ink is an ongoing theme-based exhibition, exploring the re-emergence and influence of ink painting and calligraphy on current international artistic practices , with a particolar emphasis on multimedia and performative-based works.

Curated by Arthub Asia with Xiang Liping (Shanghai Art Museum) and Rachel Marsden (independent curator) and the contribution of Diana Campbell (Creative India Foundation), the 2012 exhibition includes works by 18 artists: Alexandre Joly, Charwei Tsai, Chen Chun Hao, Dai Guangyu, Gyan Panchal, Huang Zhiyang, Manish Nai, Moataz Nasr, Ni Youyu, Nicholas Hanna, Rohini Devasher, Shan Fan, Shen Fan, Takashi Ishida, Wang Xieda, Wu Chi-Tsung, Yu Ji and Zhang Jian Jun, who shall performe live during the fair.

The exhibition – on the east platform overlooking the venue’s ground hall – was designed by experimental architecture studio HHD_ FUN.

2. Hot Spots

This section of SH Contemporary Projects is dedicated to single, large scale, site-specific works and on-site performances by renowned artists, including Shilpa Gupta, MadeIn Company, Aaditi Joshi, Chen Zhou, Shi Qing, Yuh-Shioh Wong, and Roberto Paci Dalò with Fudan University students, who will perform during the vernissage and the first day of the fair, a new project speciafically produced in Shanghai for SH Contemporary.

Debuting this year are projections onthe ground hall’s giant screen. The idea is to give a unique platform to artists and enrich the experience of visitors by making the space itself breathe and perform. Stars like Zhang Enli, Yto Barrada, Raqs Media Collective and Maurizio Anzeri have all produced new works for this experiment.

For Hot Spots 2012 Arthub Asia enjoyed the contribution of Shanghai-based artist and curator Shi Yong and India-based curator Diana Campbell.

3. First Issue

Built around the work of young artists who had their first important exhibitions in 2011-12, this section is a valuable tool for collectors and art lovers, highlighting new trends and astounding new talents from China and the Asia Pacific; introducing Aki Kondo, Chen Tianzhuo, Cheng Ran, Gao Ruyun, Li Jun, Nandan Ghiya and Yu Cheng-Da.

The exhibition – overlooking the entrance of the venue’s East Wing – was designed by experimental architecture studio HHD_ FUN.

A special room is dedicated to Absolut Vodka, the sponsor of the section.

4. The Video Room

In 2010, Independent Curators International (ICI - curatorsintl.org) launched Project 35, a program of single-channel videos selected by 35 international curators who each chose one work from an artist they think is important for audiences around the world to experience today. The resulting selection has been presented simultaneously in more than thirty venues around the globe, inspiring discourse in places as varied as Skopje, Macedonia; Lagos, Nigeria; Tirana, Albania; Cape Town, South Africa; Storrs, Connecticut; New Orleans, Louisiana; Berlin, Germany; Los Angeles, California; and Taipei, Taiwan.

Considering the widespread popularity and success of Project 35, ICI has collaborated with an additional 35 curators to produce Project 35: Volume 2. ICI again draws from its extensive network of curators to trace the complexity of regional and global connections among practitioners and the variety of approaches they use to make video.

Curators: Leeza Ahmady, Meskerem Assegued, Daina Augaitis, Defne Ayas, Regine Basha, Valerie Cassel-Oliver, Rosina Cazali, Stuart Comer, Veronica Cordeiro, Christopher Cozier, María del Carmen Carrión, Rifky Effendy, Özge Ersoy, N’Goné Fall, Amirali Ghasemi, Vít Havránek, Hou Hanru, Virginija Januskeviciutė, Abdellah Karroum, Sun Jung Kim, Pablo León de la Barra, Maria Lind, Yandro Miralles, Srimoyee Mitra, Nat Muller, Sharmini Pereira, Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, Kathrin Rhomberg, Mats Stjernstedt, David Teh, Philip Tinari, Christine Tohme, Raluca Voinca, Jochen Volz, Adnan Yildiz.

Artists: Alexander Ugay, Helen Zeru, Jin-Me Yoon, Michael Blum and Damir Nikšic, Jenny Perlin, Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry, Aníbal López (A1 53167), Agnieszka Polska, Sara Ramo, Heino Schmid, Elena Damini, Prilla Tania, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Dale Yudelman, Sona Safaei, Zbynek Baladrán, Sun Xun, Antanas Gerlikas, Shezad Dawood, Park Chan-Kyong, Jonathas de Andrade, Annika Eriksson, Reynier Leyva Novo, Deanna Bowen, Basim Magdy, Annemarie Jacir, Ivana Müller, Josef Dabernig, Lars Laumann, Wok the Rock, Chen Zhou, Marwa Arsanios, Pavel Braila, Cinthia Marcelle, Ahmet Ögüt.

5. THE ASIA PACIFIC PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE (APPP)

SH Contemporary’s signature promotion of photography finds its space in a small yet excellent group of dedicated galleries and in the 2nd edition of the Asia Pacific Photography Prize (APPP).

The 2nd edition of SH Contemporary’s APPP will be awarded to one photographer-artist by a jury of international artists, editors, curators and critics, including Erik Kessels, Francesco Zanot, Maurizio Anzeri and Peng & Chen.

Erik Kessels is co-founder and creative director of communications agency KesselsKramer, with offices in Amsterdam and London. The company believes in finding new ways for brands to tell stories using whatever media is most relevant to their message. Kessels designed, edited and published several groundbreaking books of vernacular photography through KesselsKramer Publishing –including the in almost every picture series, The Instant Men and Wonder. Since 2000, he has been an editor of the alternative magazine Useful Photography. He curated exhibitions such as Loving Your Pictures at Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie Arles and was one of four curators (with Vince Aletti, Lou Reed and Fred Ritchin) of the New York Photo Festival 2010, where he presented the exhibition Use me Abuse me. KesselsKramer worked and is working for national and international clients as well as on exhibitions by prestigious artists. kesselskramer.com - kkoutlet.com - kesselskramerpublishing.com

Photography critic and curator Francesco Zanot has been working with some among the most renowned European and international photographers. His most recent collaborations are with Alec Soth (Triennale, Milan), Olivo Barbieri (Palazzo Ducale, Genova), Takashi Homma (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa). He curated several photobooks by artists such as Mark Cohen (Italian Riviera, Punctum Edizioni), Guido Guidi (Fiume, Fantom Editions), Charlotte Dumas (Al Lavoro!, Fantom Editions) and his essays have been published on various monographs and catalogues. His next contributions will appear on books dedicated to the works of Joel Meyerowitz (Phaidon), Luigi Ghirri (Mack Books) and Alec Soth (Contrasto), and on the 4-volume series Photography, a new history of the medium published by Skira. Director of the Master in Photography and Visual Design organized by Forma (Center for Photography) and NABA (New Academy of Fine Art) in Milan, he is also lecturer of History of Photography at IULM University, Milan. He participated to conferences and seminars on the theory and history of photography in different universities and schools, such as Columbia University, New York, Politecnico di Milano, and the American Academy in Rome. He is associate editor of Fantom, a photographic quarterly based in Milan and New York.

Artist Maurizio Anzeri in 2005 received his MA in sculpture from The Slade School of Fine Arts, London, the city where he has been living for the past 25 years. Anzeri mostly works with discarded photographic portraits which he brings back into existence with exquisite embroideries. A celebration of forgotten lives, his work transforms straight portraits into a three-dimensional objects with an intense psychological dimension. He had solo show at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead (UK), Q Forum in London, Rupert Pfab Gallery in Dusseldorf (Germany), Luce Gallery in Turin (Italy), Riflemaker Gallery in London and Galleria Image Furini in Arezzo (Italy). Recent group shows include The Photographic Object at The Photographer’s Gallery London, British Art Now at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (Russia), British Art Now and Out Of Focus- Photography Now, both at the Saatchi Gallery in London, and Makeup, curated by Mariuccia Casadio for A Palazzo Gallery in Brescia (Italy). His work is in important public and private collections, including Saatchi (UK), Fondazione Giovanni e Marella Agnelli (Italy), Gagosian (USA), Rothschild (USA), Ivor Braka (UK), Statoil (Norway), Missoni (Italy), The Museum Of Everything (UK), Alexander McQueen (UK), Galila Barzilai Hollander (Belgium), Museo Cantonale di Lugano (Switzerland), Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf (Germany).

The work of Peng & Chen (Chen Jiaojiao and Peng Hyangjun) focuses mainly on photography, publishing, editing and art direction. They are currently creative directors and editors of The Outlook Magazine, China's leading creative lifestyle magazine (published by Modern Media Group). Previously, they worked as creative directors and editors-in-chief of Colors, the magazine of Fabrica, Benetton’s communication research centre in Italy; creative directors and brand directors for Yifei Media; creative directors and editors of Vision city books and chief photographers for Vision magazine; art directors and editorial directors of Zing magazine; creative directors and editors of Hermes Shang Xia cultural and art series. They also cooperated with Singapore publisher, Page One, and British publisher, Southbank, to produce books of creative brands A-Z, and were invited by Shanghai MOCA to curate Unseen, an exhibition of emerging international photographers.