Ethan Cohen, director of ART ASIA
WHITEWALL: This is the inaugural edition of ART ASIA. How is it going so far?
ETHAN COHEN: Great, ART ASIA has been welcomed by Miami. We wanted to bring Asian art to the forefront and to the collectors. Having it situated in Wynwood – with so many fairs nearby – has insured a critical mass. People come to Miami from all over so it’s exciting.
WW: When did decide that there needed to be an Asian-specific art fair in Miami, that the Asian art fairs like ShContemporary weren't enough and a presence in Miami was necessary?
EC: About two and half years ago a group of us came together with the idea to start an Asian art fair. We realized there are two focus points for us – Miami and Basel. We thought that in both those locations Asian art wasn’t being shown to reflect its true power in the art market so we thought it would be a cool idea to pool the galleries together and create a fair.
WW: At your gallery, Ethan Cohen Fine Art, you have been representing Asian art since the late eighties, before it was the major market it is now.
EC: I started in ’79 as a student collecting Chinese Art. Then in the eighties I started really collecting and in ’87 I opened my gallery that focused on avant-garde fine art. We never thought that Asian art would get so big.
WW: Do you feel that in the past few years Asian art has finally received the attention it deserves?
EC: Oh yes, absolutely. It's really been in the past three years that we've seen the auction market start to respond so positively, things that were selling for $200 started hitting hundreds of thousands of dollars.
WW: Since Asian artists are continuing to do well in the market despite the economic crisis, of all the fairs to begin this year, an Asian art fair seems prudent.
EC: Scope is more about emerging, younger artists. Art Asia is also about showing younger artists but there are some dealers who brought blue chip work. I think it’s a mix. Step by step we want to create and support interesting projects and experimental work, but under the current economic crisis we couldn’t do everything that we wanted.
I wouldn’t necessarily encourage people to buy art as an investment – you should buy art because you love it, it’s not a stock. Yet, art really may hold its value since people are putting money into something they love. We’re not financial advisers, in a way we’re aesthetic advisers.
