Brit champions emerging Chinese artists and idea that collections are no longer a luxury

Tom Pattinson is a big fan of art and adventure. The British national combines both his passions by nurturing a platform that showcases affordable art by artists in China.

While Chinese tycoons spend millions of dollars buying art by Van Gogh and Claude Monet, Pattinson, the founder and director of SURGE Art, takes a different approach.

Top: Tom Pattinson in front of artwork at a SURGE Art Beijing exhibition in 2014. Left: Visitors at a SURGE Art fair in Sanlitun, May 2013, which Tom Pattison participated in. Right: Tom Pattinson shared his experience with domestic and overseas journalists at an exhibition in Shanghai in September 2014. Photos Provided to China Daily

SURGE Art is based in Beijing and exhibits and sells Chinese contemporary art priced between $30 and $5,000, aiming to meet the needs of China's burgeoning economic and cultural middle class.

The 35-year-old's decision to launch Affordable Art China in 2006 and SURGE Art in 2012 came from his experience in China when he came to work in the country ten years ago.

"In other countries, you can go to any small town, any city, anywhere in Europe or America and you will probably find little galleries selling good-quality works of art for maybe just 200 or 300 pounds ($300 to $450)," he says from a Beijing cafe.

Such opportunities were rare in China a decade ago, when "everything being exhibited was incredibly expensive", he says.

"I thought there must be other people like me who weren't rich but wanted to buy some good art at an affordable price. I also got to know a lot of artists who didn't really have a platform to sell or show their work," Pattinson says.

In 2006, Pattinson, who laid the foundations for the arts and entertainment magazine Time Out Beijing, managed to draw huge crowds for the first show that showcased work by Chinese artists.

The art fair became an annual event and he later made it his full time job.

SURGE Art's success reflects the growth of a new generation of Chinese white-collar workers as well as the emergence of more young Chinese artists in the mainstream market, who previously were overshadowed by more prominent figures and were neglected by collectors.

SURGE Art has a roster of more than 2,000 artists and usually works closely with 300 at any one time. It stages free shows and art awards, such as the recent Taikoo Li Young Artist Award, in popular retail spots or art centers in big cities including Beijing and Shanghai.

Pattinson says, while most people buy art because of their appreciation of contemporary culture, some customers snap up works because they see the rapid rise in price of Chinese contemporary art as having "very good investment potential".

While more and more collectors, especially the "more international, younger ones," buy artwork to appreciate the aesthetics, he says that he hopes art will become the next must-have commodity.

"It's like a big pyramid. You have a small number of people at the top collecting expensive art, however, the number of white-collar workers below them is much larger and these are the people who can afford to collect quality accessible art," he says.

"There has been a slight drop in desire for very high-end luxuries in China over the last few years. Whereas previously people wanted Gucci and Louis Vuitton handbags, now people might want something more original, such as a unique work of art."

Contemporary art is about ideas and people are keen to express the social changes they see and experience through art. In this regard, Pattinson believes it is a golden era for Chinese artists who would like to express their ideas about China, which has gone through massive changes.

"Over the last ten years in China, there have been huge changes. Those changes are continuing today," says Pattinson, who first moved to China in 1997 and worked as a volunteer English teacher in rural Shandong province.

He says examples of the changes that young people were affected by included the effects of the one-child policy, China's rapid economic growth, young people's diversified options and the gap between the rich and poor.

"Still now, much of the art that people are exposed to in China is high-end. But in the next few years, we will see more and more people experience art, see art, enjoy art, go to galleries, understand art, and therefore start to collect art," he says.

Pattinson says SURGE Art has plans for a show in Beijing in May, one in Shanghai in autumn and possibly further events in Southern China as well.

He aims to reach more people and get them involved in art through SURGE Art's newly launched online e-commerce shop.

Beijing and Shanghai have seen more art businesses open and institutions like the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art help promote and boost awareness of the art market.

Pattinson explains that an increased number of companies working in the affordable art arena are a "good thing".

"The more people working in the sector enables us to reach more people, grow awareness and understanding and therefore grow the market as a whole. I compare it to the wine market. It wasn't just one wine company that grew the market it took hundreds of wine companies to create a popular wine market in China. If everybody pulls together, the whole market can expand," he says.

He adds he would "absolutely" stay in this industry. "It's one of these markets that continues to grow. I think that's something that hopefully over the next three to five years, more and more people will learn about art and have access to art."

Contact the writer at zhaoshengnan@chinadaily.com.cn. Wu Xinning and Meng Dongxue contributed to this story.

(China Daily 02/24/2015 page5)