Ricardo González Ramos: 
Landscapes in Motion


“As a gallery owner, one has to be open-minded, paying attention to what is happening in every corner of the world. The Chinese market is huge and is witness to a large number of interesting proposals that have never been observed in Occident.”, Ricardo González Ramos, founder of the RGR Gallery, comments this way when talking about his personal relations with the Asian market. Attracted by the Chinese art market’s dynamic, Ricardo González has spent years visiting fairs, galleries, studios, etc. of this country, which has led to several significant collaborations with multiple Chinese artists, among which it is worth highlighting the group exhibition of three Chinese artists celebrated in the gallery Landscapes in Motion, the representation of the Chinese artist Ding Yi in the Latin American market, etc.“There is very little supply of contemporary Latin American art in China”, while on the other hand, “representing a Chinese artist in the Latin American market can be anyway quite challenging”, but according to Ricardo, the artistic exchange between the two regions is something that is still at its initial phase, but with a bright future, and that is precisely why more entities and individuals are needed to promote this nurturing dialogue. For this reason, CELA talked with Ricardo about the challenges and opportunities that exist in terms of promoting contemporary Chinese art in Latin America, his personal experience in China, and the gallery's plan and strategy for the Asian market in the future, etc.



Portrait of Ricardo González Ramos




[Interviewer]
Leo L

01 JUL 2021


GALERÍA RGR IS ONE OF THE VERY FEW LATIN AMERICAN GALLERIES THAT HAVE LONG-TERM COOPERATION WITH CHINESE ARTISTS. HOW DID YOU MEET THESE ARTISTS AND WHAT PROJECTS HAVE YOU DEVELOPED WITH THEM? During the last 5 years I have been visiting China and its artistic scene keeps impressing me. Liu Bolin was the first Chinese artist with whom we had collaborations. I got to know him through social networks in 2013. I liked his works and I contacted the studio, later I also spoke with the New York gallery Eli Klein that represents him. In 2016 I visited his studio in Beijing, and it was precisely because of that visit that we were able to carry out an extremely important project in which I invited Liu to visit master Carlos Cruz-Diez’s studio in Panama, and the two of them celebrated a collaboration where the bodies of the two masters painted by Liu faded into the background of a work by Cruz-Diez. It was a fusion of the emblematic languages ​​of the two artists, linking the subject of photography with abstract art, and a dialogue between a Chinese master and another Latin American one. This project was more critical yet not so commercial.

 Over the past few years, we have visited studios of many notable Chinese artists such as Ding Yi, Shen Shaomin and Shen Fan, and these visits have led to some very important projects, including the group exhibition Landscapes in Motion that we organized at the gallery in 2018, result of the visits we dropped to the studios of Zhang Dali and Cai Dongdong in 2016 and the one of Ji Zhou in 2017. The Chinese society is developing so rapidly and aggressively, and this discourse is very present in the works of these artists, whether in the military archive of Cai Dongdong, or in the collage of artificial landscapes of Ji Zhou, or in the photographic works with political connotations of Zhang Dali, and the team of the gallery found it very interesting to address this issue and from there came this photographic exhibition with intention to represent a contemporary China to the Latin American public.



 Collaboration between Carlos Cruz-Diez and Liu Bolin, 2016; source: the artists' studios



HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED ANY DIFFICULTIES IN WORKING WITH THESE CHINESE ARTISTS? IS THERE ANY EVIDENT DIFFERENCE COMPARED TO COLLABORATING WITH ARTISTS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES?


Initially, yes, mainly because of the language barrier, but I am a lucky one: I arrived in China with colleagues who explain to me the local rules very well, either with gallery owners who promote contemporary Chinese art in the West, or with curators who already know perfectly the local dynamics; On the other hand, the Chinese artists with whom we collaborate all already have enough experience of carrying out projects in western countries, therefore, it is not a difficulty for them neither to work with a gallery like ours. Chinese-Foreign cooperation has become very common nowadays.

Each artist is different, regardless of their nationality, but in my opinion, Chinese artists are generally very organized and structured, and very open at the same time, so we have not had any complications throughout the collaborations.



DING YI IS CURRENTLY THE ONLY CHINESE ARTIST REPRESENTED BY THE GALLERY. HOW DID YOU MEET HIM AND WHAT WAS THE PROCESS UNTIL YOU FINALLY DECIDED TO REPRESENT HIS WORKS IN LATIN AMERICAN MARKET? I always do it with Art Basel Hong Kong, which is undoubtedly the best platform for the artistic interchange between East and West. I always take a long time to visit the stands, the galleries, the studios, etc. Once I saw the works of Ding Yi and I found them super interesting. We met through mutual friends and I had the opportunity to visit his studio in Shanghai at the end of 2019. His creation fits perfectly with the gallery's main focus, which is abstract art, hence we planned collaborations between both parts, until we eventually decided to represent all his works in the Latin American market.

The collaboration with Ding Yi is the most recent we have with the Chinese art world. We plan to hold a solo exhibition for the artist early next year, and also to take his works to local fairs and include them in exhibitions of local entities so that this Chinese master can get more visibility in Latin America.



Ding Yi; source: the artist's studio




WHAT ARE THE MAIN CONCERNS WHEN DECIDING TO BRING CHINESE ARTISTS’ WORKS TO THE LATIN AMERICAN MARKET?
In fact, we have been bringing works by Chinese artists such as Liu Bolin, Ding Yi, Shen Shaomin, etc. to the latest editions of Maco. We have also exhibited photographic works by Cai Dongdong and Ji Zhou in Zona Maco Foto, since its first edition in 2015, but photography is not the gallery's strong suit, but more like a parallel line. Ding Yi's abstract works fit perfectly with the central axis of RGR, but representing a Chinese artist in the Latin American market can be anyway quite challenging: 99% of the local public do not know or have never seen works of this nature. These Chinese artists already have an extremely important professional career, in recent years they have also been exhibiting in Europe and the United States, but in Latin America they get almost no visibility at all, and this is precisely why it is the gallery's mission to make local people know, appreciate, and believe in this type of art.




 ARE THERE DIFFICULTIES FOR THE LOCAL PUBLIC TO UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART? TYPICALLY, WHAT TYPE OF COLLECTORS WOULD BE INTERESTED IN THIS TYPE OF ART? The gallery always tries to provide all the necessary information so that the public does not have difficulty in understanding and capturing the idea of the works by these Chinese artists; On the other hand, the abstract pieces by artists like Ding Yi, due to their simple aesthetics, already attract a certain audience. The visual language used by many Chinese artists today is quite universal rather than merely territorial.


As for the second question, well, the type of collectors who are normally looking for the same type of art that the gallery represents. RGR works with many Latin American masters, which makes it easier for us to gain the trust of our collectors, even in the face of highly priced works of emerging artists from other countries. Compared to the local consumption, this type of sale always takes more time, for the collector to respond and invest, and it is the gallery's job to convince our clients and thus expose them to a more diverse international offer.

PERSONALLY, YOU HAVE ATTENDED VARIOUS ART FAIRS IN BEIJING, SHANGHAI AND HONG KONG. CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT THESE EXPERIENCES?


Personally I enjoy visiting fairs, and Art Basel Hong Kong is without a doubt an essential event that one cannot miss. Since 2016 I have traveled in total five times to China, and the main reason is always to visit Basel Hong Kong. In 2016, after visiting Hong Kong, we headed to Beijing for Gallery Weekend, where we managed to visit the studios of Liu Bolin, Zhang Dali and Cai Dongdong, from which the exhibition Landscape in Motion was derived, just as I mentioned before; In 2017 we went to visit Shen Shaomin and ended up taking his works to Zona Maco; In 2018 we traveled to Shanghai for the first time, where we made many visits to studios of artists like Shen Fan; In 2019 we traveled to China twice, once in March for Basel Hong Kong and Gallery Weekend Beijing as usual, another in November for West Bund and Art 21 in Shanghai, and it was also on that visit that we discussed the idea with Ding Yi about his representation in Latin America.

IN THE FUTURE DO YOU HAVE ANY MORE PLANS TO RETURN TO CHINA, OR EVEN TO ENTER THE CHINESE MARKET?



As a gallery owner, one has to be open-minded, paying attention to what is happening in every corner of the world. The Chinese market is huge and is witness to a large number of interesting proposals that have never been observed in Occident.  It is the gallery's job and mission to discover, explore and bring good quality creations from the international scene to the local market, but not for the simple fact of being Chinese artists do we decide to represent them; neither do we try nor can we create a movement which is “to promote contemporary Chinese art at abroad”: on the contrary, we focus on a more universal language and the important thing is that the discourse of these artists fits with the gallery’s line, both visually as theoretically.




The gallery's strategy has a lot to do with the Chinese and Asian market in general. We are strongly interested in continuing to know and explore this region and its offers. We are passionate about creating a nurturing dialogue between these two or even three continents in the future. Later we also plan to attend fairs in China. It would undoubtedly be an enriching learning process. Currently there are many galleries that are trying to enter the Chinese market, but they are not adequately prepared, and that is precisely why at the moment we are developing our website in Chinese, and with the management of accounts in Chinese social networks such as Wechat, to facilitate our next steps in the Asian market.



Landscapes in Motion, RGR Gallery, 2018; source: RGR Gallery


HOW IS THE PRESENCE OF LATIN AMERICAN ARTISTS IN CHINA? ACCORDING TO YOU, WHAT FACTORS HAVE CAUSED THIS CURRENT SITUATION?

From what I see, there is very little supply of contemporary Latin American art in China. Despite the presence of some masters such as Carlos Cruz-Diez, Julio Le Parc or Jesús Soto, Latin American mid-career or emerging artists hardly achieve any visibility in China.

In my opinion, the Chinese market mainly consumes local art, now it is opening up to the western atr scene, but especially to American artists and some “big names”. There are many American or European galleries that have ser branches in China, such as Pace or Perrotin, who seek to promote works by their country's artists, even if they are young, in the Chinese art market. To date, there is no relevant Latin American gallery that has base in China, and for this reason, in general, contemporary Latin American art does not have as strong a presence as that of American or European artists.


AND ON THE OTHER HAND, HAVE YOU WITNESSED ANY PRESENCE OF CHINESE ARTISTS IN LATIN AMERICA?


 No, in Latin America there is not so much collection of contemporary Chinese art either. It is the same situation as the presence of Latin art in China, but personally I think it is something that is beginning. I take it more as a matter of time. In the future there will be more galleries from Latin America trying to enter the Chinese market: it is natural that they want to expand their business to where the capital is and where there is more dynamics.

There are many variables for the artistic exchange between the two regions to increase, but if we want more collaborations in the future, we need more entities and individuals to push this type of artistic exchange. In the end, it is a very simple answer. There is no more to do than this.



[External links]

RGR Gallery



CELAARTISTIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN CHINA, IBERIA & LATIN AMERICA