Young Chinese collectors use mobile apps to pick up art
Young Chinese art collectors are using mobile apps to explore and buy art, partly so as to avoid the intimidating experience of walking into an art gallery or auction house. The founder of art-buying app Wallart, Li Rui, said his main audience are those wanting to spend CNY10,000 ($1,450) on art. He said the app acts as a first step for cultivating the habit of buying artworks.
Young Chinese collectors use mobile apps to buy artworks online

2017-05-02 16:04 CGTN Editor: Li Yan

With the rapid development of online apps in China, we are seeing a growing trend of Internet-savvy individuals who are relying on apps to explore the field of art. To avoid the intimidation factor of walking into an art gallery, young art collectors, who were born in the 80s and 90s, are now swiping their phones instead of visiting galleries to look for artworks to purchase.

According to Li Rui, the founder of an art buying app "Wallart", he says that his target audience is entry-level collectors, and people who are looking to spend less than 10,000 yuan (1,450 U.S. dollars) on a piece of artwork. From his experience, most of these collectors would not request to see the artworks in person unless they are priced at over 10,000 yuan, making these pieces suitable to be sold via an app.

Li also said that the online app acts as a first stage for art enthusiasts to cultivate the habit of buying art. And once they are exposed to the beauty of art, they are more willing to go further and spend more on works of art.

Li Rui's friend and client Luo Xin is an avid buyer of affordable art. As the founder of an education company, Luo boasts about the potential growth of middle-class art collectors in China. His annual budget for buying art is 100,000-150,000 yuan (14,500-21,750 U.S. dollars), ranging from oil paintings to prints and sculptures.

On the contrary, Jeff Lee, the Director of Longmen Arts Projects, works for a traditional art gallery. In addition to having the experience of selling art, he also has a good eye for collecting art. He once bought a piece by Hiroyuki Matsuura for 90,000 Hong Kong dollars (11,570 U.S. dollars) and sold it for over 1 million yuan (145,000 U.S. dollars) later on.

As the heir of a family-owned gallery, Lee also sees the opportunity of selling art via apps. Rather than looking at it as a competition, he believes that it's just another way for people to get their foot in the door of art buying. He also has a lot of international clients buying his gallery's artworks through online platform Artsy.

Buying affordable art through online platforms is becoming a new consumer trend in China right now. Besides "Wallart", there are other apps like "Artand", and "Artpollo", which are also making their presence in the online world.

Without having to spend a fortune, young art collectors are now opening themselves up to a new way of understanding and learning about art. As easy as swiping their phones, they can have beautiful pieces delivered right to their doorsteps in just a few days.