Art brokers in Macao

03 2015 | Issue 3
Text/Hazel Ma, Allison Chan and Bob Leong

part b_ENG-60.jpg   part b_ENG-61.jpg


Although Macao has a small art market and that art galleries find it hard to operate, but Art For All Society, being the leading broker for Macao-based artists, enjoys an unparalleled success. Hong and Fok’s artworks are sold via them. Both artists conceded that most of the time art is not sold via exhibitions or the artists themselves, but via galleries with the right business acumen and connections.

 

Founded in 2007, it took Art For All Society eight years to establish itself as Macao’s leading, most reputable commercial gallery. A designer and artist himself, Chief Supervisor of Art For All Society, James Chu, knows that artists need to devote themselves to create, in order to produce truly impressive work. But where marketing is concerned, art is no longer simply a matter of subjective appreciation. One needs to market the image or style of the artists and their works strategically in order to create market value.

 

So what artworks does a market want? Chu explained: “In order to capture sales, an artpiece must have a unique theme, and the artist should be known as someone consistently making good art. Our customers are regular art buyers, and they look for maturity and experimentation in the creative work. They are discerning buyers and are often very decisive in buying art.”

 

However, experience and long years of artistic cultivation are often needed to meet the taste of the buyers, and to distinguish artworks that have market potential. Chu admitted that this expertise is still relatively lacking in Macao.

 

He said: “Being an art broker is a lifelong career, and requires long years of experience and repeated endeavours. Macao has a low unemployment rate, and indeed not many people are willing to work in arts administration or marketing. Take our company as an example. In the past year we have one employee leaving us almost every month. There is not a lot of professional training being offered in the local sector, which makes it almost inevitable that we recruit from overseas. The strong competition for human resources in the arts sector can no longer be ignored.”

 

So while there is a lack of professional arts brokers in Macao, what about the prospects of those artists who are profiled by these brokers? How do their works sell in and outside Macao?

 

Chu pointed out that, an emerging artist may sell his or her painting at around MOP3,000 to MOP4,000, depending on the market response. More well-known artists such as Tong Chong and Fok Hoi Seng Eric can fetch as much as MOP10,000 to MOP40,000. Chu estimated that over 80% of these willing buyers are expatriates working in Macao.

 

“Westerners’ spending habits differ considerably from those of Asians. They see art collecting as part of life, while most Asians would rather save up or spend their money on everyday living such as clothing, dining or accommodation. It will take some time for Macao’s population to nurture their taste for art collecting.”

 

While Art For All Society could be called an art broker, the two editions of ART MO International Art Fair recently held in Macao could be seen as a platform for cultivating art buyers and collectors.

 

For those who had been to this art fair, they might realise that there were very few exhibits by local artists. Most exhibits came from art organisations and galleries in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

 

Operation Director of ART MO International Art Fair, Ho Kin U, said: “There were not many local artworks because those artpieces we found locally were not sophisticated enough to attract buyers. Moreover, there is still a lack of appetite for high-end artworks in Macao. Therefore, what we have to do is to rely on artworks that have guaranteed marketability first, to attract Asian buyers to Macao, particularly those buyers and collectors from Mainland China who make up a substantial market share. Subsequently, of course, we should aim to cultivate more local art buyers.

 

He also explained that, while the art fair does not rely on local artists as their primary focus at this stage, it can bring benefits to both local art practitioners and the overall market. “The aim of the art fair is to position Macao as a new hotspot for Asian art buyers, so that they will grow accustomed to buying and collecting art in Macao. This will create a nurturing environment. A proper art market can only emerge with sufficient buyers, otherwise further development opportunities are hard to come by.”