An Interview with L'OFFICIEL
Link to full article in Vietnamese.
Linh An studied Master of Science in Arts and Culture Management at INSEEC, Paris. She has nearly 10 years of working for a number of large corporations such as Meta, Yahoo, Elle magazine... and collaborated as an art writer for many news and media channels.
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Let's meet and learn about the birth and development orientation of the Asian Art Bridge online gallery, through the sharing of founder Linh An.
06.07.2023 by L'OFFICIEL Vietnam
Ode to Heaven (23) | Imrana Tanveer | Pakistani Artist based in London.
There are many online galleries that have opened up in the era of the internet boom and the sale of works online has been pushed to a peak, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, the public wants to return to physical galleries to enjoy more artworks, but not because of that, the need to buy and sell works of art on the internet has lost its appeal. .
Recently, Asian Art Bridge - a rare online gallery focusing on introducing Asian artists (especially Vietnamese artists) in the European market in general and the French market in particular was opened. On this occasion, we had a conversation with Ms. Linh An, the owner of Asian Art Bridge.
Hello Linh An! Thank you for your time. Can you tell us the inspiration that made you decide to establish Asian Art Bridge?
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share with you and the art community in Vietnam my personal story and that of the Asian Art Bridge online gallery.
First of all, I want to talk about the position of most Asian artists who do not have access to the world's art scene. Although their talent is comparable to international artists of the same age or better, they lack a network of contacts at work, lack of galleries to represent them in the market. international. This has made it difficult for a large number of Asian artists to find their place in the current art scene, and even harder for them to participate in international exhibitions. . This is accompanied by the fact that their works are not recognized for their inherent value.
This is a disadvantage of an artistic lowland, especially for some Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam. In addition, if we only look at some of the famous artists of China, Japan or India, behind that, in the dark corners of Asian art even in the aforementioned countries, artists Potential young people still find it difficult to get the right foothold with their talents in international collections.
Secondly, the art market has always been a "puzzling" segment for the majority of the public. I have a lot of friends who have the financial potential or love art, or both, but they are afraid to open the door to an actual gallery. They don't even know if the value / value of the artwork they want to own corresponds to the common ground or not. Normally, the prices of artworks at professional foreign galleries are listed very clearly in a booklet, displayed on the spot, but there are still situations where many galleries do not list prices transparently, but only when asked to announce the price of each specific painting or statue (this leads to the "look at the face and quote" situation, which is quite common in this industry). These two aspects of reality made me think a lot and I suddenly wondered: why should I worry about it and not do what I want before waiting for someone to do it? From there, plans for an online gallery took shape.
Where are you | Sukyee Cho | Korean Artist.
What makes Asian Art Bridge different from other online galleries?
It is a selective online gallery, not an "art supermarket" buying and selling platform like what we see on the pages of big names like Saachiart, Artsy, Singulart, etc. They have done very well. On those pages, because too many artists create their own accounts to post their works, it leads to a lack of selection in terms of the quality of works and a lack of support from the gallery for each artist. .
In addition to the online platform, which publishes the transparent value of each work as the major sites do, the Asian Art Bridge will represent a number of artists that, in my opinion, need to be and they have the ability to be identified. better taste in the current art scene. I am divided into two generations of artists that Asian Art Bridge represents: talented artists who have passed away but are not well known by many people, and young artists with potential that I personally see they will develop further. .
I want the Asian Art Bridge to function like a classical gallery with a carefully curated selection of artists. That way, I can invest time with each artist I work with.
What do you think about buying a piece of art online during the current economic downturn?
During the Covid-19 pandemic, I talked to a friend of mine who works at a large auction house in France and learned that the buying and selling sessions have never cooled down. Even during the economic downturn, more works are purchased online than before. Of course, in the current crisis situation of the world, the majority of the public will have to pay more attention to practical spending.
But this does not mean that they will stop learning about art. On the contrary, in times like these, perhaps, people have an even greater desire for Beauty, or there is another type of collector who will see this as an opportunity they can invest in. in their favorite works. It must be said that the value of art works from Asia, including the fine art of the Indochina period by Vietnamese artists, is "storming" at auction floors.
I think it is because of this happy signal that the public will question whether the works of Asian artists that are not well known will have a "price increase" day and if so, now. Is it a good time to invest…
The Link | Mao Wakayama | Japanese Artist.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of an online gallery compared to a physical gallery, in your opinion?
The visual appeal of an online display may not be equal to that of a physical showroom. People always like to see with their own eyes, very close, to be able to receive the most message of a work of art.
However, the strength of an online gallery is the transparency of the work's value, which as I mentioned in the beginning of the conversation. Another advantage of an online gallery, for both its owners and the public, is that each person's time is used flexibly instead of being confined to one place of the physical gallery.
The Judge | Vang Hai Hung | Vietnamese painter.
What took you nearly 10 years to prepare for the Asian Art Bridge?
To be honest, it took me nearly 10 years working to finally launching Asian Art Bridge, but I don't dare accept it. Simply, life has unexpected turns but inadvertently helps us to become more mature, even to help us in the work we want to do in the future.
After graduating, I worked various jobs in the media and advertising industry at several global corporations and have always been as interested in the arts as I have been since I was a child. This period has helped me understand that running a showroom/gallery in this day requires you to have many other skills first, in which, working in the media and advertising industry is very important. Some large galleries like Perrotin or Gagosian have powerful marketing staff from agencies or media and advertising corporations are the most obvious example of this.
Thank you Linh An for this conversation.