Arario Beijing, which claims to be “the world’s largest gallery”, consists of five buildings—with three exhibition spaces—located in the Jiu Chang Art Complex in Wangjing, an old liquor factory redeveloped into an area of galleries and artists’ studios, in the Chaoyang district of the Chinese city. Highlights of Mr Kim’s collection of over 4,000 works, focusing on contemporary British and German artists, are already on show in the original gallery in one of his shopping malls in Cheonan, South Korea. Earlier this year, Damien Hirst’s 22-foot-high Charity, a sculpture of a handicapped girl, was shipped to South Korea, taking its place alongside the artist’s other giant sculpture of an anatomical model, Hymn (The Art Newspaper, March 2005). The gallery in Beijing is being launched as part of Mr Kim’s commitment to represent 16 artists from China, Korea, and India, announced earlier this year. The gallery opens with an exhibition “Beautiful cynicism” (10 December–9 February 2006), featuring the work of 24 artists, mainly from Germany and China, including Anselm Keifer, Sigmar Polke, Neo Rauch, Jörg Immendorf, Zhang Xiaogang and Wang Guangyi. An exhibition of painting and sculpture by Jörg Immendorf is on show at Arario, Cheonan (until 5 February 2006). The gallery is set to open on 10 December.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as ‘Korean collector goes to Beijing'