Shanhai Art Fair this year will promote the artworks of 10 Chinese contemporary masters, including Wu Guanzhong, Shi Qi, Chen Yifei, Yang Fudong and Yu Youhan, in a bid to inject some life into the event.

Despite being launched more than a decade ago, the fair, enjoying much acclaim inside China, still struggles for recognition outside the country.

Possibly a collaboration with ShContemporary in the future might help to solve that problem and attract more VIPs from home and abroad.

In the meantime, it will push some big names in the traditional area as well as heavyweight names in the contemporary scene, such as Yang and Yu.

Interestingly, the city's top contemporary art gallery, ShanghART, has chosen Shanghai Art Fair over ShContemporary for exposure.

Lorenz Helbling, owner of ShanghART, says the gallery has three exhibition booths at the fair occupying nearly 100 square meters.

"I am very supportive to this year's Shanghai Art Fair. That's why I am bringing some of the best artists from my gallery here. I am happy to see the growth of a local fair," Helbling says.

"I decided not to participate in ShContemporary because its emergence in China disturbs the rhythm in my overall blueprint here," he adds.

Due to the spell of "Art Compass," all exhibition booths at Shanghai Art Fair were sold out early this year.

"We have tried to make some improvements to this year's fair," says Gu Zhihua, the fair's director.

Similar to "Best Discovery'' concept at ShContemporary, Shanghai Art Fair also has its recommendation of young artists across categories ranging from new ink-wash painting to porcelain.

But there is a feeling that these young artists are from the academic system and are unlikely to surprise.

"We can see the efforts of the Shanghai Art Fair," reveals an industry insider surnamed Wang. "But the fair still has some problems. One of the biggest is that it lacks a team with a global insight."