Art, art and more art. Shanghai will play host to a cavalcade of outstanding art from home and abroad this week as three major exhibitions come together under the "Art Compass" umbrella.

Great lovers of art might need more than just a keen eye and passion this week - a pair of sneakers might also come in handy to beat the rush to the city's "Art Compass" program.

"Art Compass" is an extravaganza of art comprising the Shanghai Biennale, ShContemporary 2008 and the Shanghai Art Fair.

Unlike Shanghai Biennale and Shanghai Art Fair that are running in a domestic system, ShContemporary boasts it is the "only major international art show in Asia."

Launched by the Italian-based Bolognia Art Fair last year, it proved to be such a huge success that the word in art circles is that all first-class tickets to Shanghai were booked ages ago by the top galleries, collectors, art dealers and art lovers from around the world eager to attend this year's event.

According to ShContemporary 2008 director Lorenzo Rudolf, about 140 international galleries from 25 countries and regions will be represented at the fair running at the Shanghai Exhibition Center from tomorrow through Saturday.

"The galleries and artists in the fair have been selected on the basis of excellent creative quality that goes beyond fashion and marketing trends," says Rudolf.

"Among them, almost 50 percent come from the Asia Pacific region and the rest from Europe and America," Rudolf adds.

"Best Discovery,'' a special curated platform at the fair, invites 10 specialized curators from the Asia Pacific region to select artists who are either known or yet-to-be-discovered in the international art world.

While on the surface there is lots of glamor and excitement surrounding ShContemporary, behind the scenes there have been some "issues.''

As a new international art fair in China, each year ShContemporary needs to obtain a legal license from its Chinese partner, Shanghai Art Fair. Differences in either art concept or practice are inevitable.

For example, Shanghai Art Fair, which usually opens in November, will open simultaneously with ShContemporary this year, even though the two fairs have very different target customers.

Also, the preview of ShContemporary runs from 2pm to 6:30pm tomorrow which under normal circumstances is a bizarre piece of timing for an international art fair. Previews almost always take place in the evening.

But not this time as Shanghai Art Fair will open just an hour later giving quick-heeled guests the chance to attend that as well.

Aside from timing, censorship is also an issue. The banning of eight living pigs from a Beijing gallery shortly before the fair is an example.

"We have to accept it," says Jin Hua, a spokesman for the fair.

Another concern for Shanghai is a newly emerging contemporary art fair in Hong Kong which undoubtedly will become a major competitor to ShContemporary in China or even Asia.

One of the advantages of an art fair in Hong Kong is that it is tax-free which certainly could impact on prices.

"But ShContemporary is a jaw-dropping event taking place in Shanghai, especially in the contemporary art scene," says an industry insider who declines to be identified. "We could see how professional it is in overseas marketing and promoting.

"There is a big gap between domestic art fairs and ShContemporary. I bet no other overseas contemporary art fairs would come here in the next decade if ShContemporary retreated from here. If it did, it would be a really big loss."

But once the game starts, it is not easy to stop.

"We believe in the market here and we will stay here," says Jin.