Gallery Weekend Beijing Drew Nearly 200,000 In-Person Visitors Despite a Regional Audience and Enduring Travel Restrictions
Dealers saw robust attendance and encouraging signs for the future of in-person art events.
Installation view of BANK MABSOCIETY at the Visitor section of Gallery Weekend Beijing.
After the turmoil that stalled much of the 2020 art calendar, Gallery Weekend Beijing marks one of the first signs of a return to interacting with art in real life—and so far there’s been robust demand.
Originally scheduled for March, the fifth-annual edition of the event was postponed to May and ran for a week before ending yesterday (though some visiting galleries are continuing their runs for additional weeks). The surprisingly high number of in-person visitors—199,000 according to the official count—largely came from the region.